Sunlight Foundation

Press Articles & Mentions Archives

Press Articles & Mentions for 2009

• San Francisco Chronicle - Obama initiative attempts to restore trust

  The recent recovery of 22 million missing White House e-mails is an eye-popping wonder. How much other government information is purposely buried, poorly tracked or laying just out of reach to the public?

• CNN - Cities embrace mobile apps, 'Gov 2.0'

  Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist and a customer-service guru, was riding on a public train in San Francisco, California, recently when something common but annoying occurred: The railcar filled with people and became uncomfortably hot.

• The New York Times - Fast Trains Lead Amtrak List of Needs

  Amtrak has been working hard to lure more business travelers to its trains, with advertisements highlighting its advantages over air travel — roomier seats, power outlets on its Acela trains and fewer annoyances. And its efforts have borne some fruit: the number of riders on its Northeast corridor trains has been rising.

• Congressional Quarterly - Tariffs Spur New Look At Congress' Trade Duties

  Every three years or so, members of Congress and their staffs immerse themselves in the characteristics of complex ingredients used in manufacturing, such as synthetic staple fibers or chemicals like 1,3-Dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone. They're rarely chemists or engineers, but lawmakers effectively hold sway over hundreds of small decisions written to give hometown factories a break on tariffs for the imported materials and components they use in products -- hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of breaks wrapped into one omnibus measure.

• NBC - KSL TV: Campaign Fundraising Efforts of Senator Bennett

  KSL (a NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City) used the Sunlight Foundation's Party Time project to gather information about Senator Bob Bennett's campaign fundraising efforts:

• Federal News Radio - Great American Hackathon a success for 'positive hacking'

  Federal News Radio told you last month about the Great American Hackathon. The event was held this past weekend, and hundreds came together to participate in 'positive hacking'. Clay Johnson is the director of Sunlight Labs, the group that kicked off the event, and explains who took part and how exactly hacking could be a good thing.

• The News & Observer - Burr parties with energy and purpose

  U.S. Sen. Richard Burr is the hardiest partier in Congress, according to a watchdog group that tracks fundraising events. The Sunlight Foundation's Party Time blog has 35 fundraiser entries for Burr in its database, more than any other member of Congress.

• The Washington Times - Obama falling short of bill-signing pledge

  The White House in recent weeks took a step toward fulfilling one of President Obama's transparency pledges from the campaign by posting a link on its main Web site for Americans to comment on bills he's about to sign into law. That still didn't help Mr. Obama keep his pledge when he signed two giant spending bills in the past five days.

• Politics Daily - Obama's Health Care Pledge: Getting a Deal Trumps Making the Process Transparent

  When candidate Barack Obama was criss-crossing the country in his two-year presidential campaign, a standard part of his stump speech -- lines that always won him applause -- had to do with his promise to negotiate health care reform in public, on C-SPAN, for all to see. As the wrangling over health overhaul legislation heads into its final stretch, it's clear that was a promise President Obama did not keep. The dealmaking remained behind closed doors.

• Deseret News - U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett is a 'party animal' for donors

  WASHINGTON — Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, may look like Ichabod Crane and speak with all the sleepy excitement of a banker, but he is one of the biggest party animals in Congress. The Sunlight Foundation reports that he ranked No. 5 out of the 535 members of Congress for the number of political fundraisers he held this year: 29.

• The News & Observer - Open government for all the Web to see

  RALEIGH -- Towns around Wake County, and the county itself, are putting more information online. This is good news for taxpayers and advocates of open government. It is also good news for government employees who will have more time and better tools to do their work. The John Locke Foundation created NCTransparency.com to encourage governments in this effort.

• Malibu Magazine - Arianna Huffington [New Media Magnate]

  Since founding the Huffington Post, authoring 12 books and being named one of Time magazine’s most influential people, Arianna Huffington’s influence has spread from the written word to the radio waves on public radio station KCRW-Santa Monica’s political roundtable, Left, Right and Center. A leading voice on the environment, Huffington was most recently recognized at Oceana’s 2009 Partners award gala for her contributions to conservation.

• InformationWeek - Chief Of The Year: Vivek Kundra

  On the wall of Vivek Kundra's Washington, D.C., office hangs a poster-sized IT diagram with such fine-grained detail that it strains the eye to study it. The diagram, showing the computing infrastructure of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was created to expose data that could be made publicly available as part of President Obama's government "transparency" initiative. Kundra, appointed the nation's first federal CIO in March, has learned that it's not enough to mandate data disclosure; he must get involved.

• National Journal - Lobbyists Look For Ways Around New Rules

  Many on K Street have warned that President Obama's rules targeting lobbyists could have the unintended consequence of driving the activity underground. Ethics lawyers Kenneth Gross, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Stefan Passantino, a partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge, described to National Journal one way that that caution may be coming true.

• CNET - Charting a course from virtual reality to the White House

  Beth Noveck is deputy chief technology officer for the Obama administration. Her path to that role began with putting together the first academic conference on virtual worlds and led her to create what may be the first open social networking project in American government history, a re-working of the U.S. patent review process known as peer-to-patent.

• Journal Sentinel - Kagen leads in office expenses

  Rep. Steve Kagen is the biggest spender in the U.S. House when it comes to spending taxpayer money on maintaining his congressional office, according to the latest quarterly logs of expenditures by members of Congress.

• Journal Gazette - Small airports reap federal aid

  New signage is in place at Fort Wayne International Airport, which received about $1.2 million in federal stimulus money.

• National Public Radio - Open to Scrutiny

  This week the White House announced its Open Government Directive - a set of rules and recommendations governing how federal agencies should make data public and easy to access. John Wonderlich, policy director at the Sunlight Foundation, says releasing this data could have meaningful effects on government accountability and even spur new services in the private sector.

• Greenwire - DOE: 'The world can contribute' to new clean energy site

  A new Energy Department Web site promises energy information for the masses, using data sharing, open-source and social networking tools to reach people beyond government circles. The Open Energy Initiative is home to more than 60 clean energy resources and data sets, linked by interactive maps and networking sites.

• KTVU - Hacker Plans

  KTVU - Fox San Francisco discusses the Great American Hackathon that occurred in nearby Cupertino, organized by Sunlight Labs.

• The Wall Street Journal - As Boeing Hits Turbulence, Uncle Sam Flies to Its Aid

  Airlines are struggling amid the global recession. Boeing Co., meanwhile, is churning out jetliners at its fastest clip in years.

• Politico - Open Government Directive launches

  A new White House directive released Tuesday on transparency and open government was hailed by advocates as signaling dramatic, aggressive change in making government information available to the public.

• The Washington Post - Federal agencies must post public data online

  The White House released a series of wide-ranging mandates Tuesday designed to make agencies more transparent and cooperative in the public's requests for information about the inner workings of government.

• AFP - White House outlines government transparency plan

  WASHINGTON — The White House directed federal agencies to make the workings of government more transparent by publishing more data online and drafting plans to allow for greater public participation.

• WNYC - John Wonderlich Discusses the Open Government Directive

  The Sunlight Foundation's policy director, John Wonderlich, discusses the White House's Open Government Directive with Brian Lehrer via Skype:

• USA Today - Obama team launches its interactive 'openness' policy with online access

  Open government? There's an app for that. Or so the Obama administration proposes, rolling out a "transparency, participation and collaboration" directive for all federal departments and agencies at 11 a.m. ET today.

• CNET - White House unveils open government directive

  The Obama administration on Tuesday officially unveiled its Open Government directive, a document that charges each federal agency with making high value data publicly available and with quickly coming up with formal open government plans.

• The Associated Press - White House to release new gov't data collections

  WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House on Tuesday instructed every federal agency to publish before the end of January at least three collections of "high value" government data on the Internet that never have been previously disclosed, an ambitious order to make the administration as transparent as President Barack Obama had promised it would be.

• WTOP - Discussion about the Open Government Directive

• Slate - Metatransparency

  On his first full day in office, President Obama promised a "new era of transparency" for government. But that promise has gone largely unfulfilled, as the executive branch launched a gajillion clunky Web sites and a nifty Flickr photo stream. Today, the administration finally pinned down its transparency policy: The White House is not just making things public. It's making public the process of making things public. This is not just transparency; it's metatransparency.

• Roll Call - K Street Files: The Anti-Chamber

  A group of activists has taken out an ad offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue. The full-page ad, which ran in the Dec. 4 Washington City Paper, asks would-be tipsters to call a 1-800 number hot line or to e-mail any dirt on Donohue. “We now seek hard evidence that will stand up in the court of law,” the ad states. It wants “documents, affidavits and testimony implicating Donohue in crimes; including fraud, tax violations, campaign finance violations, money laundering, insider trading, election tampering, pension fund and stockholder manipulations.”

• Concord Monitor - Ever wonder where the money's going?

  How do New Hampshire's members of Congress spend their money? Obviously, personnel is the biggest driver of any office budget - whether in business or politics. Beyond that, 1st District Rep. Carol Shea-Porter has an affinity for travel. Second District Rep. Paul Hodes puts money into maintaining numerous district offices.

• The Record & Herald News - Herb Jackson: Capital Games

  Bipartisanship on job creation DEMOCRATIC LEADERS should be bringing Republicans in now for talks about how to shape a jobs bill that is widely expected to come before the House next month, Rep. Bill Pascrell says. “Let’s have an inventory of their ideas, our ideas, our bills, their bills and come up with a bipartisan package that we pay for,” Pascrell, D-Paterson, said in a recent interview. “I’m committed to taking $75 million to $100 million from TARP.”

• NextGov - Ability to access comments gathered by White House questioned

  Open government advocates have criticized the Obama administration for removing some public comments it collected on a site developed for the presidential transition and fear the practice means the White House might stop making some citizen input accessible on its site.

• NBC - Report Details Spending Among Congress

  COLUMBUS, Ohio—A new report sheds some light on just where your money is going. For the first time, the U.S. House of Representatives posted their expenditures online. NBC 4 took a closer look at the data found on the open government Sunlight Foundation Web site and found that so far, Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy has spend more than $881,000 for her office and employees.

• Roll Call - House’s New Financial Reports Drop Details

  Claiming a milestone in Congressional transparency, the House on Monday for the first time released its quarterly expense reports online. But first, Congressional administrators erased a vast array of details on the expenditures of House Members, making it impossible to determine what much of the money was actually spent on.

• Observer-Reporter - A History of Thick Bills

  Aside from the usual characterizations of health-care reform as incipient socialism, Republicans have another problem with the bills that have been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate - they're too long.

• Roll Call - Disbursement Records Now Online

  House Members’ office expenditures go online today, making it easier to dissect Representatives’ travel expenses, staff salaries and even their office supply budgets. For decades, the House has released its statement of disbursement only in thick books printed every three months. The books detail how Members and committees spend their office budgets. Anyone who wanted to get that information had to go to the Capitol complex or order a copy through the Government Printing Office.

• Le Monde - To reinvent the democracy per hour of the networks and the transparency

  The first edition of Personal Democracy Forum Europe has which was held in Barcelona the 20 and November 21, 2009 was the occasion to explore several manièrers “hacker” and to reinvent the policy. Review of three evoked tracks.

• Politico - Indian donors among dinner guests

  As India has grown in strategic importance to the U.S., its government and the Indian-American community have also increased their political profile in Washington. And among those dining Tuesday night at President Barack Obama’s first state dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were a handful of Indian American donors to Obama’s campaign, including Singh Balvinder, who generated between $50,000 and $100,000 in donations to it.

• The Japan Times - U.S. online strategy holds clues for Tokyo

  Imagine befriending Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Facebook. Or getting "tweets" from Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Twitter. It could happen if Tokyo follows Washington's lead. This summer, Japan, like the United States last year, opted for a new government. Snubbing the Liberal Democratic Party after a more than 50-year ruling streak, voters rewarded Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan and, according to polls, are expecting change in return.

• National Journal - Congress' Best (And Worst) Committee Web Sites

  Barack Obama punched his ticket to the White House with the help of innovative digital campaigning, and since arriving he's overhauled and created high-profile Web sites like WhiteHouse.gov and Recovery.gov. Yet amidst this push for transparency, some Congressional committee Web sites -- crucial for disseminating hearing schedules, transcripts and legislation -- haven't caught up.

• The Washington Times - Lobbyists spending big to shape health care debate

  Sen. Max Baucus will be busy the next few weeks trying to steer a massive health care reform bill through Congress, but he will not be so busy that he won't be able to find time to hit Washington's fundraising party circuit. Mr. Baucus, a Montana Democrat who chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, is scheduled to attend a "birthday party" in his honor at a Capitol Hill town house in two weeks. The price of admission is a check for his re-election fund.

• The Washington Post - 'Augmented reality' fuses your world and the Web

  The cameras on some new phones don't show the world as you've known it. Instead of just viewing the usual landscape of people, places and things on their screens, you see circles, rectangles and icons floating on top of the scenery. Tap one to display a snippet of Internet data about whatever lies behind that tag. As you look around, the view on the phone's display shifts accordingly, presenting new shortcuts to whatever the Web knows about your surroundings.

• The Canadian Press - Internet activists discuss online democracy

  The Internet can be a powerful medium for politicians to get their message across but it is also a vital means for civilians to have a say in what politicians do, participants in a political technology conference said Saturday. Speakers at the Personal Democracy Forum in Barcelona highlighted President Barack Obama's election as an example of how the Internet was affecting politics.

• National Public Radio - Legislating In Secret Irks GOP, But Insiders Say It's SOP

  Republicans' attacks on the Senate Democrats' health bill kicked off with criticism about process as much as substance. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., spent weeks forging the bill "behind closed doors," charged the Republican leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky and his deputy, Jon Kyl, of Arizona, in statements right after the bill became public.

• Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Federal stimulus funds reported in nonexistent Pennsylvania districts

  Transparency apparently comes with strings attached. Five Pennsylvania congressional districts that don't exist received a combined $12.6 million in federal stimulus money that created or saved 32.2 jobs, according to the Web site the Obama administration created to track how stimulus money is spent. Similar errors appear on Recovery.gov for states across the country, with hundreds of phantom congressional districts reportedly receiving billions in stimulus funding, the Web site shows.

• The Dallas Morning News - Errors on government Web site make it difficult to track stimulus money

  WASHINGTON – When Barbara Harrison, director of the housing authority in Burkburnett, Texas, recently filled out a form to report a $99,664 federal stimulus award, she didn't know the number for her local congressional district. She doesn't remember what she listed, and now, the grant shows up on a federal Web site as District 00 – which doesn't exist. It's one of hundreds of mistakes on the site, meant to stand as a symbol of transparency about where the government money is going. Instead, it's giving critics, including Texas Republican lawmakers, fodder to attack President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan as wasteful, inefficient and ineffective.

• The Washingtonian - What Washingtonians Cook Up on Turkey Day

  Thanksgiving Guide 2009 What’s the only thing—besides a Cowboys loss—guaranteed to please a home crowd on Thanksgiving? Innovative and inspired Turkey Day dishes. We asked several local celebrities (and one First Lady) what their favorite Thanksgiving food is—and some were even kind enough to pass along their top-secret recipes. So when the big day rolls around, drop that remote, drag yourself from the couch to the kitchen, and give thanks for these crowd-pleasing favorites.

• The Denver Post - Lobbyists' townhomes in D.C. woo both parties

  WASHINGTON — Influence comes in many forms in the nation's capital, and twin fundraisers this week for two Colorado Senate candidates shows one of those can be real estate. Republican candidate Jane Norton was in town Monday for a big-money fundraiser at a Capitol Hill townhouse owned by partners of Williams & Jensen, a powerful Washington lobbying firm.

• Surprisingly Free Conversations - John Wonderlich on government transparency and accountability

  John Wonderlich, the Policy Director at the Sunlight Foundation, discusses the government transparency movement. The discussion also turns to the work of the Sunlight Foundation and Lawrence Lessig’s recent article on “naked transparency.”

• San Diego CityBeat - Doing Their Duties

  When a crate of goods lands on U.S. soil, Customs is all over it with duties—unless Congress grants a specific import a pass. Members of Congress have the discretion to propose temporary tariff exemptions and it’s not something they use in moderation. In 2008, the U.S. International Trade Commission—which analyzes and approves each of these bills—parsed through more than 900 of them. Typically, once approved, the bills are bundled up into a single omnibus package for Congress to vote on, but the tariff legislation was put on hold in 2008 and eventually died.

• MSNBC - Lobbyists Influencing Health Reform

  Jake Brewer, the engagement director for the Sunlight Foundation, on MSNBC's Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan to discuss lobbyists providing talking points to lawmakers during the House health care debate:

• Times Argus - Study looks at 'real' cost of a Vermont train ticket

  Vermont's two passenger train routes lost $31 and $52 per passenger in 2008, according to a recently released study that raises the question of whether rail travel should be publicly subsidized.

• The Commercial Appeal - County offices differ on Web worthiness for information

  Residents can track and map crimes in their neighborhood on the Memphis Police Department's Web site. Homeowners can view aerial views of their property at the county register's Web site and access a deed with a mouse click. Yet, the local Board of Equalization -- the office where homeowners file appeals on their property-tax assessment -- doesn't even have a Web site. Formal appeals must be completed on paper and filed in person or mailed.

• Politico - Parties cash in on hot issues

  Top industry executives piled into Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters over the weekend to hear California’s Barbara Boxer, New Mexico’s Jeff Bingaman and other Democratic senators discuss some of the most pressing policy issues on Capitol Hill. The price of admission: $5,000 to $30,400, made payable to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

• CNN - When it comes to making data sexy, you can't be too graphic

  The good news: data from governments and other organizations is increasingly open and online. The bad news: it's rather dull. The result? A booming interest in data visualization, which can transform boring stats into compelling graphical presentations explaining our world.

• Philadelphia City Paper - A Million Stories

  Here's a shocker. Our own U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, D-Comcast, is one of the 72 House Democrats who signed an Oct. 15 letter to the Federal Communications Commission voicing "concern" over the FCC's proposed net neutrality rules. "What's net neutrality?" you ask. Good question. Let's put it this way: Big telecom companies think the Internet as currently conceived — where people can access amazon.com just as easily as they can little ol' citypaper.net — is not nearly as profitable as it could be. They'd prefer a system in which they can charge deep-pocketed corporations higher rates for better service, and relegate start-ups, middling companies and your little sister's blog to the Web's back burner, where they'll never be heard from again.

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Information on Stimulus Difficult to Come By

  The White House says it has either halted or modified more than 170 projects to ensure federal stimulus dollars are spent wisely, but it won’t identify most of them despite repeated requests from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

• The Denver Post - Greene: A Bad Feeling About Feeling Better

  As clinical trials go, Bray Patrick-Lake's was a success. She supposes. But the manufacturer of the device that relieved her severe migraines apparently measured success in different terms. The company halted its research shortly after her surgery, leaving Patrick-Lake and 33 other recipients clueless about why.

• WAMU - Obstacles to "Government 2.0"

  From small local agencies to sprawling federal departments, governments across the country are using the web to make more information available to citizens. Activists and software companies envision a new era of government accountability. But they're grappling with a range of technical and philosophical obstacles. Tech Tuesday explores the roles and responsibilities of governments, software developers and activists.

• InformationWeek - Supreme Court Awaits Funding For Website Facelift

  As the Obama administration readies its open government directive for the executive branch of the U.S. government, the judicial branch of the government awaits word of funding for much-needed updates to the Supreme Court's Website.

• Government Computer News - The Web's Next Act: A Worldwide Database

  Almost 20 years ago, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, then a contractor for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, invented a document hypertexting format that became the basis for the World Wide Web. He now hopes to advance this technology another step by building a web of data. And he wants government to lead the charge.

• Federal News Radio - Sunlight Labs' Great American Hackathon coming next month

  Get ready for the Great American Hackathon of 2009!

• Gov 2.0 Radio - Doing It Your Way

  Gov 2.0 Radio discussed The Great American Hackathon that is being organized by Sunlight Labs:

• The Christian Science Monitor - Healthcare Reform: Obama Cut Private Deals with Likely Foes

  By the time the Clinton administration launched its bid for sweeping healthcare reform in 1993, corporate interests opposed to the idea had already taken the field. Health insurers alone raised and spent $50 million in advertising to sink the bill. Together, insurers, doctors, hospitals, and drug manufacturers spent more than $100 million on lobbying. The bill never got off the ground. That’s the scenario the Obama administration set out to avoid.

• Bloomberg - Recovery.gov Augmented Reality App by Sunlight Labs featured on Bloomberg

  The Recovery.gov mobile application created by Sunlight Labs was featured briefly on Bloomberg television.

• Miller-McCune - Eyes Wide Open But Algorithms Wide Shut?

  Adobe's laudable push for open government butts up against the difficulty that machines have sussing out what's in its products. Adobe hosted a one-day conference in Washington this week capping off an extravagant PR campaign — complete with billboards throughout the D.C. metro system and animated ads all over most local news Web sites — touting the idea that its tools help "open up government."

• Roll Call - Shop Talk: If I Were a Rich Man

  Club for Growth spokesman Rich Dunn has left the anti-tax conservative group to take a gig as the deputy political director at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In many ways, Dunn is merely returning to his roots: He served as deputy incumbent retention director at the National Republican Congressional Committee in the 2008 cycle. When former Rep. Chris Chocola (R-Ind.) became president of the club earlier this year, he brought on Dunn — one of his former top aides ­— to be the group’s spokesman.

• Government Computer News - Readers Defend PDF Format Against Critics

  Documents in the Portable Document Format are about as common on the Web as celebrity photos, but does the format help or hinder the dissemination of information? Readers were of two minds in responding to our report on the Sunlight Foundation’s criticisms of PDF. Several stressed the need for better-educated users. Others contended that data shouldn't always be easy to get at.

• Politico - Members, Families Cash in on Free Trips

  In February, Sen. Dick Lugar and his wife took a $16,000 trip to Jordan. In April, Lugar and his son John took a $9,300 trip to Valencia, Spain. In May, Lugar and his wife took a $10,000 trip to Croatia. And in August, Lugar and his wife took a $6,500 trip to Banff, a tourist hot spot tucked in Canada’s vast mountainous terrain. Total cost to Lugar and his family for the travel, lodging and food: zero.

• NextGov - Open Government Conference Sponsor Takes Flak Over Its Software

  Adobe on Wednesday hosted a free open government conference aimed at promoting online transparency, amid protests by bloggers who question the transparency benefits of the software company's products. The well-attended conference showcased pioneers in federal new media, including Lisa Schlosser, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Information Collection, and personalities who rely on government data to do their jobs, such as keynote speaker and ABC News political analyst Cokie Roberts.

• Django Dose - Django Dose Community Catchup

  Django Dose discussed the augmented reality mobile application created by Sunlight Labs:

• Government Computer News - Is PDF hurting transparency?

  Computers cannot easily parse government documents rendered within the Portable Document Format, according to the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency. The group argues that because of this, the widely used document standard is actually detrimental to government transparency efforts. The difficult parsing means that people have to work harder to reuse government data, the organization asserts.

• Internet Evolution Radio - Internet Evolution Radio Interview with Ellen Miller

  Ellen Miller, co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, spoke with Internet Evolution Radio about the scope and campaigns of the Sunlight Foundation:

• The Washington Times - Big Money Buys Seats at Lawmakers' Dinner Tables

  Want to dine with five U.S. senators? Then just drop by Wednesday night and, oh, by the way, bring $30,400. That's what it costs to be a "co-chair" of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's Women's Senate Network party, thrown by power lobbyist Heather Podesta. "What do you get when you put the minds of key Democratic Women Senators, the brush strokes of Women Artists, the recipes of Women Chefs, and the design of a Woman Architect together in the same house?" Mrs. Podesta said in an e-mail addressed "Dear friends."

• PBS - 10 Projects that Help Citizens Become Government Watchdogs

  With the 2010 U.S. elections coming into view, many people are looking for more information about the people running for office -- and the individuals and organizations funding these candidates. Fortunately, there are dozens of initiatives that mine and share the data that influence policy and policy-makers. Many are funded by The Sunlight Foundation, which aims to use "the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens."

• MSNBC - When Medical Tests Fail

  Bill Allison, editorial director at Sunlight, was on MSNBC's Dr. Nancy recently to discuss the Sunlight Foundation's 'Heart of the Matter' medical device story from the Secret Data series:

• Congressional Quarterly - With Transparency Issue, House GOP Freshmen Are Carving Out a Niche

  House Republican freshmen, who have been all but absent from the Democratic majority’s deliberations about major legislation, have still managed to find a signature issue they hope will resonate with Americans. Along with several slightly less junior colleagues, they have introduced a handful of bills attacking what they say is a lack of transparency in Congress — especially compared with the state and local governments where many previously served.

• The Washington Post - Coming & Going: Amtrak's costs, new flights to India

  Train troubles Amtrak just can't seem to get back on track. According to an analysis by Subsidyscope, an arm of the Pew Charitable Trusts, 41 of Amtrak's 44 routes lost money in 2008. In the Northeast corridor, which has the highest passenger volume, the Northeast Regional train lost almost $5 per passenger. The high-speed Acela Express, which has half as many passengers, fared better, making a profit of $41 per person, Subsidyscope found.

• This Week in Google - This Week In Google 14: Nut Graphs, Gadgets, And Bots

  The Sunlight Foundationgot a brief mention in the "This Week in Google" podcast, which has been cropped into a clip:

• National Public Radio - Track Those Tax Dollars In An 'Augmented Reality'

  Clay Johnson, the Director of Sunlight Labs, discussed the new augmented reality mobile app that Sunlight created for the iPhone and Android platforms with NPR's All Things Considered.

• Miller-McCune - Monster Mashups Shine Light on Government

  Clay Johnson pulled out his iPhone to illustrate the kind of mashup that's possible when coders get their hands on data churned out by government, whole reams of transactions on where federal money is spent, who gets it and how it's used. On the screen was a live view up 19th Street in northwest Washington, the moving picture overlaid with small bubbles representing projects on this very block paid for by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

• Budget Travel - Amtrak Loses $32 Per Rider

  Fun fact of the day: Every time a passenger rides Amtrak, the railroad loses $32 on average, say researchers at Pew's Subsidyscope project. Taxpayers cover that $32 per rider loss through federal government subsidies. Last year, taxpayers gave Amtrak $1.3 billion in direct payments.

• The Daily News - Baird's transparency effort earns honor, but his colleagues still aren't on board

  The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation last week awarded Congressmen Brian Baird, D-Wash., and John Culberson, R-Texas, its Sunlight on the Hill Award. It’s well-deserved recognition of their commitment to passing Baird’s proposed 72-hour rule, which would require a three-day “timeout” to give lawmakers and the public time to read legislation before a final vote is taken.

• Longview News-Journal - Amtrak: Money Losses Shouldn't Stop or Slow Service

  A private study indicates it costs about $32 to subsidize each Amtrak passenger, which is about four times what the federally funded rail operator estimates. The study, conducted by Subsidyscope and funded by the Pew Charitable Trust, claims that nearly all of Amtrak's 44 routes lost money in 2008. The main difference in how the losses are recorded is that the rail operator does not count depreciation, and the Pew study did.

• Politico - Closed-door Health Care Reform Decried

  When Barack Obama was running for president, he vowed to lead the most open and transparent government in history. Candidate Obama even promised to negotiate health care reform live on television. Then it came time to govern, and President Obama has negotiated major parts of the health care bill behind closed doors. Earlier this year, he announced deals his administration had cut with drug companies and hospitals after brokering them out of public view. And now his top lieutenants are working in secret with leading Democrats to craft the health care bill that will be debated on the Senate floor.

• The Associated Press - Study: Amtrak loss comes to $32 per passenger

  WASHINGTON — U.S. taxpayers spent about $32 subsidizing the cost of the typical Amtrak passenger in 2008, about four times the rail operator's estimate, according to a private study. Amtrak operates a nationwide rail network, serving more than 500 destinations in 46 states. Forty-one of Amtrak's 44 routes lost money in 2008, said the study by Subsidyscope, an arm of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

• Comedy Central - The Daily Show: Net Neutrality Lobbying

• The American Prospect - The Obstacles to Real Health-Care Reform

  American presidents have tried seven times to bring us into the community of nations that provide health care to all citizens. Seven times the effort failed. More accurately, it was blocked. In the 1940s, the anti-reform movement was led by doctors, through the American Medical Association. In the 1990s, it was led by the insurance and small-business lobbies.

• Congressional Quarterly - Republican Clamors for Inside Look at Rulemaking Sessions

  No one who has attended a meeting of the House Rules Committee would be likely to think he or she had witnessed democracy in its purest form. Regardless of which party has controlled the House, the majority party members of the Rules panel have made all the decisions — often behind closed doors before the public meetings begin.

• MSNBC - Real Time Investigations on Rachel Maddow Show

• The Washington Times - Murtha, Moran Steer Millions to Software Firm

  When software firm MobilVox wanted to break into the lucrative world of defense contracting, it pursued an unmistakable strategy: It expanded operations from its Northern Virginia base in Rep. James P. Moran's congressional district to the southwestern Pennsylvania district of Rep. John P. Murtha.

• The Plain Dealer - You elected Sherrod Brown to legislate. Is he ever.

  WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Is it our imagination, or is Sherrod Brown introducing bills at a manic pace? His flury of introductions led us to several places (including Thomas.gov and OpenCongress.org) to run the numbers, and we can officially decree: Brown, an Ohio Democrat, is the most active freshman U.S. senator of 2009.

• The Chronicle - Baird Honored For 72-Hour Rule

  U.S. Rep. Brian Baird was honored for commitment to transparency in government by the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation Wednesday. Baird and Congressman John Culberson, R-Texas, were both presented with the Sunlight on the Hill Award for legislative action relative to passing Baird’s proposed 72-hour rule.

• Billing World - Net Neutrality: McCain Moves Swiftly to Curtail FCC

  Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., thinks the FCC has “gone rogue” and is seeking to block the agency from regulating net neutrality. The self-declared maverick stayed on one side of the aisle Thursday when he introduced the Internet Freedom Act of 2009, proposed legislation that would bar the FCC from enacting rules to keep broadband providers from restricting or slowing Internet traffic.

• PC World - Surprise: McCain Biggest Beneficiary of Telco/ISP Lobby Money

  Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is the top recipient of campaign contributions from large Internet service providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast over the past two years, according to a new report from the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics. McCain has taken in a total of $894,379 (much of that money going to support his failed 2008 bid for the presidency), more than twice the amount taken by the next-largest beneficiary, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. ($341,089).

• The Hour - Feds Encourage Using Cars, Not Mass Transit

  We have been strong supporters of efforts to improve mass transit ridership in recent years and thought that the federal government, if you believed its press releases, held the same position. The federal and state governments fund bus lines and commuter rail lines, and you would assume the goal was to enhance mass transit services. Well, maybe.

• The Chronicle - Our Views: Give Baird Credit for Commitment to 72-Hour Rule

  David Castillo is running for Congress, hoping to unseat Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver. Castillo, in our opinion, is the first credible opponent to emerge against Baird, who has been our congressman since being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998. Baird has been popular, even in conservative Lewis County, being voted by the readers of The Chronicle as their favorite politician in past years.

• St. Paul Pioneer Press - Pawlenty hits D.C. Party Circuit

  Gov. Tim Pawlenty's "Freedom First" PAC holds its first big fundraiser tonight, a soiree where Pawlenty enthusiasts will be asked to donate $5,000 to be one of Pawlenty's "Leadership Team Members." CNN first had the goods on the party.

• Computer World - Is the Federal Stimulus Creating Tech Jobs? The Government isn't Saying

  WASHINGTON -- One obvious follow-up question to the U.S. government's announcement this month that the federal stimulus has created or saved 30,000 jobs so far is this: How many were IT and engineering jobs? Unfortunately, there isn't an answer.

• Consumer Affairs - FCC Votes To Create Net Neutrality Rules

  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted unanimously today to begin the process of crafting formal rules for "net neutrality," the principle that all content on the Internet should be equally accessible to all users, and that companies cannot discriminate or block one set of content in favor of another.

• Boise Weekly - Fundraising For Now and For Later

  It is still a week or two shy of the Nov. 3 election, but some of you have already voted for your Boise City Council candidate of choice. Deputy City Clerk Wendy Burrows-Johnson tells citydesk that her office had received about 700 to 800 absentee ballot requests as of Oct. 19, and that early voting began at the Ada County Elections Office at 400 N. Benjamin Lane.

• The Washington Times - Health debate stimulates lobbyists

  As lawmakers considered last month taxing medical device makers to help pay for health care reform, a small army of lobbyists mobilized against the measure. They were backed by corporate lobbying budgets that have ballooned since the beginning of the year.

• PBS - Stimulus Bill Data Offer Glimpse of Effectiveness

  Americans and government watchdogs are getting their first glimpse at the results of the massive economic stimulus package heralded by President Barack Obama soon after taking office. New data, released on the government-run Web site Recovery.gov on Oct. 14, show the stimulus program has created or saved at least 30,383 jobs, though that covers only a sliver of the total aid package. Jared Bernstein, a senior economic advisor in the Obama administration, said in a White House blog post the data could be extrapolated to show at least one million jobs created or saved so far, based on the total amount spent.

• WBT News-Talk Radio - Jake Brewer discusses Read the Bill on WBT News-Talk Radio

• The Olympian - Baird Gets Award for Bill Transparency Fight

  If nothing else, U.S. Rep. Brian Baird is getting recognition for his effort to push House leaders into making major bills public for 72 hours before they are voted on. The Vancouver Democrat's spokesman put out a news release today announcing that the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation has given its "Sunlight on the Hill Award" to Baird and Republican Rep. John Culberson of Texas.

• McClatchy - House Leaders Urged to Post Legislation Well Before Votes

  WASHINGTON - As Congress prepares to consider historic changes to the nation's health care system, Democratic leaders are balking at supporting a change in the rules that would let the public see the bills' texts 72 hours before a vote.

• Style Weekly - Cantor’s Friends

  When it comes to keeping big-spending liberals and big government in check, U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Henrico, often cites his steadfast allegiance to ordinary taxpayers. The rising Republican star and minority whip is a particularly staunch defender of the status quo in today’s system of managed care, although he acknowledges it’s too expensive.

• U.S. News & World Report - Hear All About It: the Top 10 Talkers in Congress

  Washington has always been disparaged for being a town of hot air, but now there's proof. What's more, we now know who the top 10 talkers are during any period. By charting the words spoken or added by members to the Congressional Record, the Sunlight Foundation's site determines who the blabbers are, who the quiet ones are, and what the top words spoken in the House and Senate chambers are. The word "health" is currently the top word, although the top 10 talkers aren't just those focused on the healthcare debate.

• ABC News - Is Stimulus Money Being Spent Too Fast?

  Could the wheels of government bureaucracy be grinding too quickly for once? States, in particular, have been criticized for taking too long to use money from the government's $787 billion stimulus package. Yet, some wonder whether the emphasis on "shovel-ready" projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is putting pressure on federal, state and local officials to push forward on projects that either aren't ready for primetime or just aren't important enough to receive immediate funding.

• Hartford Courant - Play Fair On Transit

  Let's say you have a choice of whether to drive to work or take the bus. The bus would be the green choice. But Uncle Sam is telling you to drive. A recently released analysis by Subsidyscope, a joint project of Pew Charitable Trusts and the Sunlight Foundation, says that parking is favored over transit by the tax code. Workers can write off a maximum of $205 in monthly parking benefits, while the maximum tax-free value of transit passes is $105 per month.

• Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Small Pa. airports get big bite of funding from FAA's federal grant program

  Westmoreland County's Rostraver Airport doesn't offer commercial flights, but over the past five years it received more than $2.1 million from a federal program funded largely through fees on airline tickets, a study shows.

• Politico - White House Helped Create Corporate-Backed Health Care Campaign

  At a meeting last April with corporate lobbyists, aides to President Barack Obama and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) helped set in motion a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, primarily financed by industry groups, that has played a key role in bolstering public support for health care reform.

• The Associated Press - ALL BUSINESS: Lobbyists influence financial reform

  NEW YORK — Get over it, America. Wall Street bankers make too much money. The latest example: Goldman Sachs says it has set aside $16.7 billion so far this year for compensation — or about $530,000 per employee. Not bad for a company that a year ago received $10 billion in federal money as well as $12.9 billion from the government's bailout of American International Group Inc.

• The Salt Lake Tribune - Bennett Spends More Campaign Cash than Raised

  Washington: Sen. Bob Bennett's campaign burned through more money in the past quarter than he raised but the senator still holds a sizable bank of cash heading into the 2010 election.

• Norwich Bulletin - Danielson airport upgrades move toward end-of-the-year completion

  The installation of a new aircraft taxiway exit, along with additional drainage and lighting, at Danielson Airport should be completed by the end of the year, state officials said. The concrete road — a shortcut planes will use after landing on the airport’s lone 2,700-foot runway — will be 90-feet long and connect to the main taxiway. The $522,000 project was primarily funded with $458,000 in federal money, though the state put up $64,000 in matching funds, Judd Everhart, state Department of Transportation spokesman, wrote in an e-mail.

• NextGov - Critics Fault Recovery Board's First Posting of Stimulus Data

  Government officials in charge of tracking spending aimed at stimulating the economy released on Thursday unprecedented details of financial transactions, but the information they posted on the Web might be unintelligible to the public, information specialists and watchdog groups said.

• TVO - Lawrence Lessig on The Agenda - Digital Activism

• The Associated Press - House Panel Begins Push on Financial Overhaul

  WASHINGTON — Small neighborhood banks and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are overshadowing the nation's biggest banks in influencing lawmakers as Congress begins the initial phase of its long-awaited overhaul of how the government regulates financial companies.

• Government Technology - Tracking Transparency's Direct and Indirect Costs (Opinion)

  The problem with promises is that they set expectations on which it's impossible to deliver. Consider transparency. It's a friendly word with a progressive edge as used by the Obama administration, which days after inauguration, declared its commitment "to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government."

• MSNBC - Dylan Ratigan's Morning Meeting v. Rep. Barney Frank

• Business Journal - Sunshine Shines Light on Bean

  The Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to greater openness and transparency in government, singled out U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean for receiving $269,800 in contributions through the first half of this year from finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sectors – tops among members of the House’s Financial Services Committee.

• Charleston Daily Mail - Agency Fails to Meet its Own Standards

  CHARLESTON, W.Va.--Federal stimulus projects at several West Virginia airports highlight one of the fundamental tensions officials face as they spend money from the $787 billion national stimulus package. While state airports are benefiting from the stimulus money and creating dozens of jobs with it, most of the money awarded has not been distributed according to standards the Federal Aviation Administration set for itself. Instead, the agency is said to have sought to spend the money quickly.

• The Washington Post Writers Group - Cold Cash's Long Reach

  WASHINGTON -- I don't have a sex scandal for you. The foibles of politicians and celebrities titillate. But ultimately, they have little to do with the most enduring and corrosive scandal of our civic life. It unfolds out in the open, day after day.

• Peoria Journal Star - Our View: House Democrats Must Prove That Ethics Matter

  Have majority Democrats in Congress learned nothing from the GOP's mistakes when it held the reins?

• USA Today - Airport Check-in: Low-priority projects get stimulus funds

  About $270 million in federal stimulus money awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration has gone to more than 90 airport projects that received low-priority ratings by the FAA, according to data by Subsidyscope, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts.

• Lockport Union-Sun & Journal - Lee Says Lawmakers Need Time to Read Legislation

  NORTH TONAWANDA — Congressman Chris Lee, R-Clarence, stopped in North Tonawanda on Friday calling for reform regarding the time he and his colleagues have to read lengthy bills before a vote. He said the way things work currently, representatives are the victims of some pretty absurd logistics. For instance, he produced a 1,400-page bill on cap and trade tax legislation recently introduced on a Friday at 3 a.m. Lee and others in Congress were then asked to vote on the bill by 7 p.m. the same day.

• Burlington Free Press - Welch Backs Extension of Homebuyer Tax Credit

  ESSEX — The Wignalls say that without the $8,000 boost they received from the government, they would have had to wait at least a few more years to buy a house. Lindsey and Matt Wignall, both 28, bought a house in Essex after moving back to Vermont from Washington to raise their two sons. Lindsey graduated from St. Michael’s College, and Matt graduated from Norwich University. Matt works full-time for the Vermont National Guard, and Lindsey works full-time raising the kids.

• Louisville Courier-Journal - 14 Health Care Groups and Their Lobbyists Gave More Than $500,000 to McConnell

  WASHINGTON — Since 2007, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has received more than half a million dollars from 14 health-care organizations and their 127 outside lobbyists — more than any other member of Congress except former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. That kind of concentrated bundling of donations is part of an unseen web of campaign giving, according to a new study by the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics.

• The Wall Street Journal - FAA Stimulus Recipients Got Low Priority Ratings

  WASHINGTON -- More than $270 million in stimulus grants awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration have gone to projects that scored below the agency's own threshold for weeding out low-priority proposals, according to data being released Wednesday by a government watchdog group.

• WZFG - Lisa Rosenberg discusses the 72 hour rule on the Scott Hennen show on WZFG

  Lisa Rosenberg, the Government Affairs Consultant for the Sunlight Foundation, discussed the 72 hour rule on 'Hot Talk' with Scott Hennen on WZFG:

• Reuters - U.S. Stimulus Money Funds Some Low Priority Projects

  More than a quarter of all airport improvement grants from U.S. economic stimulus funds have gone to lower priority projects, an independent analysis found on Wednesday. Much of the $270 million went to more than 90 projects rated by the Federal Aviation Administration, according to Subsidyscope, a research database affiliated with the Pew Charitable Trusts.

• Roll Call - Watchdogs Want More Tariff Details

  Despite new disclosure rules that require more specifics from lobbyists who are pushing for tariff measures, watchdog groups complain that it is still too hard for the public to determine which companies are seeking these lucrative trade breaks.

• Politifact.com - Speed-reading the Health Care Reform Bill?

  With the massive health care bill about to come to the House and Senate, members of Congress are arguing about a reading assignment: How long should they have to read a bill that could be 1,000 pages long? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised 72 hours -- three days -- for a final bill to be available online before a vote. Centrist Democratic Senators have asked Majority leader Harry Reid for guarantees of 72 hours for bills in the Senate.

• Jackson Free Press - Public Option: A Necessity?

  Blane McClellan, co-owner of Security Services Inc. of Jackson, says he wants a public option in the national health-care plan to compete with insurance companies that routinely refuse to cover his daughter due to her history of medical ailments.

• Forbes - Tracking Foreign Influence

  One of the side effects of being a superpower is that your every twitch affects far-flung corners of the globe. The far-flung corners, consequently, want to press their various cases in Washington. And so like any U.S. company or interest group, foreign governments hire lobbyists, lawyers and public relations firms. Now a new Web site makes it easier to track what foreign governments are paying for what. In doing so, it also shines a brighter light on the wider world of lobbying.

• Politico - Critics Blast $3M Mining Handout

  A mining company owned by Goldman Sachs and two private equity funds is in line to get a $3 million earmark for work at a rare earth elements mine in Mountain Pass, Calif. — raising questions as to why Congress would take on some of the risk for a bailed-out investment giant that’s already making a profit.

• The Washington Examiner - Congressional Leaders Fight Against Posting Bills Online

  As Congress lurches closer to a decision on an enormous overhaul of the American health care system, pressure is mounting on legislative leaders to make the final bill available online for citizens to read before a vote. Lawmakers were given just hours to examine the $789 billion stimulus plan, sweeping climate-change legislation and a $700 billion bailout package before final votes.

• Federal News Radio - Chopra, Kundra Speak Out on Technology and Government

  Two of the President's top technology "lieutenants" took to the stage at a conference to step back from their busy schedules, and reflect on initiatives on transparency and openness in government launched by the Obama Administration.

• WUSA9 - Should All Congressional Bills Be Posted Online?

  WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- Should Members of Congress and members of the public have 72 hours to read legislation online before debate begins on the House floor? A growing number of House members thinks the answer is yes.

• WBAL - Lisa Rosenberg discusses the 72 hour rule on the Ron Smith Show on WBAL

  Lisa Rosenberg, the Government Affairs Consultant for the Sunlight Foundation, discussed the 72 hour rule on the Ron Smith Show on WBAL:

• The Washington Post - Eye Opener: The Federal Register Relaunches

  Happy Monday! It's an important day for lawyers, lobbyists, librarians, good government groups, Gov 2.0 junkies and citizens concerned about the business of the executive branch, because the White House, National Archives and Government Printing Office relaunch the online version of the Federal Register today in XML format at Data.gov.

• The Washington Post - A More Web-Friendly Register

  Lawyers, lobbyists, librarians and concerned citizens, rejoice: As of Monday, it is much easier to access the Federal Register. The de facto daily newspaper of the executive branch publishes approximately 80,000 pages of documents each year, including presidential disaster declarations, Medicare reimbursement rates, and thousands of agency rulings on policies ranging from banking to fishing to food. It's a must-read for anyone with business before the federal government or concerned about inside-the-Beltway decisions, including academics, good-government advocates and Register junkies (yes, they do exist).

• USA Today - Most Lobbyist Money Going to Dems

  WASHINGTON — Fundraising by Washington lobbyists so far this year has chiefly benefited the Democratic Party, according to a USA TODAY analysis of campaign finance reports available for the first time under a new ethics law. Federal lobbyists helped collect more than $3.7 million during the first six months of 2009, and nearly $2.3 million went to Democrats, the analysis shows. The party now controls both chambers of Congress and the White House.

• InformationWeek - Federal Register Made Available In XML Format

  After prompting from open government advocates, the White House has begun publishing the U.S. government's official journal, the Federal Register, in XML, making public announcements easier to search, organize, and access.

• MSNBC - Jake Brewer on Dylan Ratigan's Morning Meeting

• The Philadelphia Inquirer - PhillyDeals: By Friday, panel gave states the insurance option

  The Democrats who dominate Congress spent last week arguing with one another about whether and how the government ought to compete with private health insurers, under President Obama's health-care expansion. "You had people looking for any reason to slow down, which means 'Stop the bill,' " Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) told me. Liberals such as Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.) pushed for a low-cost, government- run insurer for low-income workers. More business-friendly members such as Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.) argued that would hurt private insurers, such as Cigna Corp. and Independence Blue Cross.

• The Times-Picayune - Sen. Mary Landrieu and Rep. Charles Boustany Benefit from Health Care Lobbyists' Contributions

  The Center for Responsive Politics and the Sunlight Foundation said it's no surprise the health care industry has stepped up contributions to lawmakers in hopes of influencing the current debate over health care reform. What's new, they say, is that these health groups have tried to "enhance" their influence by having their lobbyists also donate, although the groups said they can't say for sure whether this is all a coordinated effort.

• The Hill - Nats win the pennant when it comes to D.C. fundraising success

  The Washington Nationals are proving that you don’t need a winning team to be successful in politics. The five-year-old Major League Baseball franchise easily beat out the other major DC sports franchises - the Redskins, Capitals and Wizards - in being chosen as a location for political fundraising events. The team’s stadium, Nationals Park, was the site of at least 44 fundraisers during baseball games since its opening day in March 2008. A review of data compiled by the Sunlight Foundation's Party Time! project shows that the number of fundraisers held during Nats games beat the combined total of parties held during games for the other area’s NFL, NBA and NHL teams, as well as the D.C. United pro soccer team.

• The Washington Post - Health-Care Bill Fuels Debate on Public Access to Legislation

  The debate over health-care reform has given new momentum to an old goal of some good-government groups: greater public access to legislation that Congress is considering. Much of that new energy is being fueled by conservative foes of health care who see political opportunity in their efforts.

• Mother Jones - Max Baucus Hearts Lobbyists (397th Edition)

  Money buys results in Washington. And health insurance companies and their lobbyists are spending a lot of money trying to buy results from Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). As chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus is playing a key role in writing health care reform legislation. The health insurance industry has all the reasons in the world to make sure they're on his good side. That's probably why, as an investigation by the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics recently revealed, it's not just health insurance companies giving Baucus money—it's their lobbyists, too:

• CBS News - Watchdogs Highlight Donations from Health Lobbyists

  Legislators influencing the health care debate are not only receiving significant political donations from members of the health and insurance industries but also from the numerous lobbyists that represent the industries, a report by two Washington watchdog groups shows.

• The Washington Post - Report Details Lawmakers' 'One-Two Punch' in Health-Care Donations

  The health-care industry is already one of the leading contributors to Congress, but a new study finds that health-care lobbyists add to the industry's clout by giving money to many of the same lawmakers themselves.

• Los Angeles Times - Federal Stimulus-Monitoring Website Gets an Update

  Reporting from Washington - Since February, when the government launched a website to provide a window on the federal stimulus package, critics have been calling for a makeover. Now they have one. The site, unveiled today by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, was revamped through the use of $9.5 million in stimulus funds. It provides easier-to-use tools, such as a ZIP Code search that shows stimulus projects in specific communities. The government also has set up a toll-free hot line (1-877-FWA-DESK) for reporting fraud, waste and abuse.

• Los Angeles Times - These Crusaders Bring Transparency to Government

  Government pooh-bahs live by the credo Information is Power. Here are a few of the guerrillas working to overthrow the resulting dictatorship.

• Chicago Tribune - New Web Site to Track Stimulus Funds

  Since February, when Recovery.gov launched as a window on the federal stimulus package, critics have been calling for a makeover. Now they have one. The revamped Web site, unveiled today by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board at a cost of $9.5 million in stimulus funds, provides easier-to-use tools, such as a zip code search that shows stimulus projects in local communities. The government has also launched a toll-free number (1-877-FWA-DESK) for fraud, waste and abuse reporting.

• The Christian Science Monitor - How Washington Lobbyists Peddle Power

  If labor lobbyist Robert “Bobby” Juliano didn’t move away from his stakeout just off the Senate floor from time to time, he might be mistaken for a statue. Other lobbyists have moved on to BlackBerrys and instant messaging. (He calls them “the thumb generation.”) But for Mr. Juliano, who has been in the thick of every big labor issue in the past 36 years, there’s no substitute for face-to-face contact with members of Congress.

• Des Moines Register - Radical Transparency For Political Survival

  Graham Gillette makes a good point in this post. Government operates better when the people are kept informed. When bureaucrats are allowed to create power centers built on the control of information or are able to spend money in the murkiness of complicated or convoluted budgets, bad things often happen. And before you say I am picking on Culver, the legislators who are beating the Governor about the shoulders for not being open are not being straight with their constituents either. The General Assembly has the power to enact laws that demand open government and time and again they resist doing so.

• PBS - Government Aims for Cost, Security Benefits With Cloud Computing

  When Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, describes how the government has gone about spending money on information technology in the past, images of infamous $200 government hammers and ashtrays can easily spring to mind.

• The New York Observer - The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Mother Jones, WNYC, More Join Data Archive Experiment DocumentCloud

  Twenty newspapers, magazines and nonprofit organizations have become new partners with DocumentCloud, a data archiving project created by journalists and developers at ProPublica and The New York Times. The Atlantic, New Yorker, Mother Jones, MSNBC, WNYC and The Washington Post are among the publications that will submit documents, files and other data into the DocumentCloud system, and soon make them available for public search.

• The Hill - FCC Seeks More Broadband Input

  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been inundated with ideas and suggestions for the national broadband plan it is putting together, with 10,000 pages of filings and notes from 25 workshops to sift through.

• The Washington Times - GOP Seeks 72-hour Window to Read Bills

  Trying to capitalize on voters' anger at lawmakers this summer, Republicans on Wednesday launched bids in both the House and Senate aiming to force Democrats to let them have at least three days to read bills before they're put up for a vote. In the House, Rep. Greg Walden, Oregon Republican, filed a petition to force a vote on a bill with bipartisan backing that would require all non-emergency legislation to be posted online, in its final form, 72 hours prior to a vote.

• The Washington Times - Dems Block GOP Demand for More Time

  Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday turned back a Republican amendment to wait 72 hours and require a full cost estimate before the final committee vote on the health care reform bill. It was the committee's first vote out of more than 500 amendments awaiting them, in what has already been a contentious mark-up session. The amendment would have delayed a vote on the final bill for about two weeks to allow the Congressional Budget Office to complete its final analysis on the cost and implications of the legislation.

• Politico - Senate Dems Bolster 2012 Coffers Early

  Spooked by the gloomy 2010 outlook for their party, Democratic senators up for reelection in 2012 are already boosting their campaign coffers, raising millions for an election that is still 37 months away. But Democrats have a good reason for engaging in the never-ending campaign: The National Republican Senatorial Committee is already prepping health care-related attacks against 2012 candidates based on committee votes that begin Tuesday.

• The Hill - Bundling Rule Doesn’t Capture All the Fundraising by Lobbyists

  A law designed to shine a bright light on big political campaign contributors on K Street has in practice not been particularly illuminating, watchdogs charge. Politicians are supposed to report to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) lobbyists who have bundled money for their campaigns. A bundler is an individual who collects contributions from others and then directs the money to a particular candidate.

• The San Angelo Standard-Times - Two Fundraisers Unreported for Conaway and Cornyn

  Two lobbyists hosted a fundraising breakfast for San Angelo Congressman Mike Conaway in May at Bistro Bis, a chic French restaurant on Capitol Hill. Price of admission: $500 a person and $1,000 for a political action committee. That same month several lobbyists hosted U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s Cinco de Mayo fundraising event at the National Republican Senatorial Committee near the Capitol complex. Contributions: $2,500 per host, $1,000 for a PAC and $250 for an individual.

• Battle Creek Enquirer - Lots of Loopholes

  Back in 2007, in the wake of the scandal involving mega-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Congress passed so-called ethics legislation. No longer would lobbyists influence lawmakers with undisclosed campaign contributions, supporters said. They called it the "Honest Leadership, Open Government Act," and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proclaimed that the legislation would "draw back the curtains, throw up the windows and let the sunshine in."

• The Bismarck Tribune - Perpetuating Falsehoods

  At a recent town hall meeting in Simpsonville, S.C., a man told Rep. Robert Inglis, R-S.C., to keep his "government hands off my Medicare." This statement epitomizes the depth of ignorance infecting the current health care reform "debate."

• The Associated Press - Promises, Promises: Much Lobbyist Help Undisclosed

  WASHINGTON — Few members of Congress are disclosing that lobbyists are helping them raise campaign cash despite a new law that was supposed to shed light on the ties between lawmakers and the capital's influence brokers, an Associated Press review found. Though lobbyist-hosted fundraisers are workaday events in Washington — typically advertised to political insiders by fax and word of mouth — only about two dozen lawmakers have reported lobbyists raising money for them.

• Arkansas Times - The Silence of the Ross - Update

  Utility and energy industry lobbyists sent out invitations in June for two fund-raisers to benefit Rep. Mike Ross, shortly before Ross voted against climate change legislation, the Sunlight Foundation reports on its Web site – http://www.sunlightfoundation.com The foundation, devoted to disclosing behind-the-scenes connections that influence policy, recently initiated a new project called “Party Time” where it collects invitations sent out to various fund-raising events involving members of Congress.

• Mother Jones - Obama vs. the Lobbyists

  At the end of this summer of discontent, of death panels and unplugging poor Grandma, of birthers and astroturfers and rifle-toting picketers, the halcyon early days of the Obama administration feel increasingly like hazy, gilt-edged memories. The president's sprawling legislative agenda — a health-care overhaul, financial regulation reform, slashing wasteful military spending, and climate change legislation legislation — is slowly grinding its way through the halls of Congress. Barack Obama's sheen, his administration's unflagging confidence, and all the bipartisan, post-racial aspirations have been replaced by the hard realities of Washington politicking. And with the media's lens more tightly focused than ever on Washington's every move and utterance 24/7, anything said a few months back feels like a lifetime ago.

• Arkansas Times - Meet You with the Lobby

  The Sunlight Foundation, a Washington political research organization devoted to exposing behind-the-scenes connections that influence policy, shines a light this month on the relationship between Sen. Blanche Lincoln and two prominent health care lobbyists. In particular, an article on its Web site – sunlightfoundation.com – focused on the Democratic senator’s relationship with Blue Cross Blue Shield, which controls 75 percent of the market in Arkansas.

• The Hill - Insiders gather to define Gov 2.0

  Imagine you recently moved and are taking your child to a new dentist. You look up directions on Google Maps or Mapquest on how to get there. You pull up the map and think you’re set. But, after you’ve picked your kid up from school, loaded her into the car and started driving, you immediately get lost. It turns out that the map has completely outdated information — all the roads have changed, and it’s simply inaccurate. Last week, hundreds of computer geeks, government workers and nonprofit advocates gathered in town to talk about what “Gov 2.0” means to them. With Internet technology changing by the minute, there’s much discussion about how it can help the government become a platform that engages and empowers citizens to improve how government works. Crucial to this concept, however, is that government supply people information online and in real time. You can have the best map program in the world, but if the information that underlies it is outdated, you still lose your way.

• Washington Examiner - Treasury Releases - Finally! - TARP Lobbying Rules

  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner's crew made public yesterday rules for lobbying the government for a piece of that $700 billion in TARP funds. The release comes a mere 226 days after the department announced with much fanfare in January that it would be issuing new guidelines for such lobbying. The Sunlight Foundation's Daniel Schuman has looked over the new rules and reached an interesting initial conclusion - they're an awful lot like the government's previously announced guidelines for lobbying on the $787 billion worth of stimulus projects Congress approved earlier this year.

• The Washington Post - Rep. Edwards: Censure Obama Heckler

  Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) may have reached out (perhaps reluctantly) to the White House to apologize for his headline-grabbing outburst during President Barack Obama's address to Congress Wednesday night, but that hasn't satisfied Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and others on the left.

• The Oakland Tribune - Who Speaks for You About Health Care Reform?

  Remember the Medicare Modernization Act of 2004? That's the bill that gave us Medicare Part D. Passed by Congress late on a snowy Friday in December before vacation, it officially prohibited negotiations between the government and the pharmaceutical companies over drug prices for America's seniors. It created the "doughnut hole," which requires elderly Americans each year, once they have paid a certain amount out of pocket, to pay full price for all their medications until they reach a maximum out-of-pocket amount. Then they become eligible for federal subsidy. The hole opens anew every year.

• NewScientist - Revealed: How Congress Members Sound Off About Science

  Words matter, especially for elected officials whose careers prosper or falter on the cut and thrust of political debate. So with the US Congress now back in action after its summer recess, New Scientist has used a neat online tool to find out which members are uttering the words that lie close to our readers' hearts.

• Politico - Livingston Group Drops Libya

  In the uproar unleashed in the wake of Libya's hero's welcome for convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, released from a Scottish prison last month, Washington lobbying powerhouse the Livingston Group, LLC has dropped Libya as a client, according to an email sent to associates by Livingston partner Lauri Fitz-Pegado. "The Livingston Group resigned yesterday from representing the GOL," a September 4 2009 email from Fitz Pegado to associates said, as seen by Politico. "Please share this information as appropriate."

• Politico - Read the bill? It Might Not Help

  Across the country, “Read the bill!” has become a rallying cry of the health care debate. People are shouting it at town halls. Local newspapers teem with editorials and readers’ letters demanding that lawmakers do it. Bloggers and their commenters say the same. Politicians of both parties are taunting their foes across the aisle with it.

• Forbes - A Year Later, Treasury Stiffens TARP Rules

  A year after establishing a $700 billion bailout fund for the financial sector, the Treasury Department will finally clarify its lobbying rules for bailout recipients.

• Daily Record - Listen up! Pompton Lakes Woman Helps Make Audio Version of Health Care Bill

  Can't find the time to read the health care reform legislation being debated in Washington? Want to find that section that could apply to your family's health care options? By the end of today, interested citizens will be able to listen to an audio version of the 1,000-plus-page bill that Congress is expected to debate and vote on this month.

• Battleboro Reformer - Your Government, Online!

  BRATTLEBORO - Michael Knapp thinks the government can do a better job of getting data into the hands of average Americans. Knapp, who is Managing Director of GreenRiver.org, a Brattleboro software development company, believes that social change will come after more citizens learn more about their government and he's got a plan to make that happen.

• Des Moines Register - Grassley: Campaign Contributions Hold No Sway

  Sen. Charles Grassley last week called lobbyists for the American Hospital Association "economic parasites," accusing them of failing to consult Iowa hospitals before agreeing to proposed Medicare cuts that could hurt them.

• The Buffalo News - LittleSis Keeps Big Brother in His Place

  Last month, President Obama nominated Robert Hormats, a top executive with Goldman Sachs, to a high-ranking position in the State Department. Within days, a number of blogs and news Web sites carried criticism of Hormats’ role in a $3 billion initial public offering for a company with close ties to the Sudanese government.

• Sunday Mail (South Australia) - Register of lobbyists is long overdue

  Travel can often be relied on to provide a fresh perspective of home. Distance can produce a clarity that petty domestics otherwise obscure.

• McClatchy - Health Care Industry Contributes Heavily to Blue Dogs

  As the Obama administration and Democrats wrangled over the timing, shape and cost of health care overhaul efforts during the first half of the year, more than half the $1.1 million in campaign contributions the Democratic Party's Blue Dog Coalition received came from the pharmaceutical, health care and health insurance industries, according to watchdog organizations.

• Russia Today - Russia Today: Bill Allison explores the new Foreign Lobbyist Tracker

• Russia Today - U.S. Lobbyists Scrutinized

  Senior fellow Bill Allison sits down with Russia Today to discuss FARA, Sunlight's and ProPublica's new foreign lobbyist tracker.

• The Wall Street Journal - Opinion: Transparency Chic

  Newborn babies have their own blogs and grandmothers are on Facebook. We Google potential dates. Privacy is dead. But one kind of information is still cozily locked away, safe from prying eyes: the law. President Obama may have come to Washington promising greater transparency, but progress has been less than impressive.

• The Washington Post - Who's Lobbying Whom, Cross-Border Edition

  The Foreign Agents Registration Act, passed in 1938 to track Nazi propaganda, requires lobbyists to disclose their clients, precisely whom they've lobbied on the Hill or in the administration, and what was discussed during those contacts.

• POLITICO - Axelrod's ties targeted in health fight

  Critics of President Obama’s health-care overhaul are zeroing in on his senior adviser David Axelrod, whose former partners at a Chicago-based firm are the beneficiaries of huge ad buys—now at $24 million and counting—by White House allies in the reform fight.

• ABC News - ABC News: Bill Allison Discusses Health Care Lobbying

• ABC News - The Lowdown on Lobby's Health Reform Pull

  ABC News' David Wright reports on the health care debate and includes a quote from Senior fellow Bill Allison about the special interests attempts to influence the health care debate. Bill explained who's working for who: "Insurance companies battling providers. Drug companies battling insurance companies. Hospitals going to war against nursing homes. All kinds of institutions are looking to protect their interests.

• Colorado Springs Gazette - OUR VIEW: Campaign rhetoric meets D.C. reality

  It should hardly come as a surprise that once in office elected politicians forget about, abandon, or fudge on promises made to get elected. President Barack Obama’s record on transparency and openness, however, is more disappointing than most such instances.

• CSPAN - Discussion on Gov't Transparency Through the Internet

  Sunlight Executive Director Ellen Miller discusses with CSPAN's Communicators how the Internet is being used to provide transparency in the workings of government.

• The Washington Post - Ideas Pouring In To Fix Md. Budget

  To save money, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley could crank up state thermostats by 2 degrees. He could fire his press staff. Or he could furlough his father-in-law, former attorney general J. Joseph Curran (D), who works at a state agency that administers workers' compensation insurance.

• PC World - Companies Offer Services to Crunch Gov't Raw Data

  What if a U.S. president called for a bunch of government data to be released, but the raw numbers were difficult to make sense of?

• Forbes - Gov 2.0: The Promise Of Innovation

  Over the past 15 years, the World Wide Web has created remarkable new business models reshaping our economy. As the Web has undermined old media and software companies, it has demonstrated the enormous power of a new model, often referred to as Web 2.0.

• CNN - Lobbying Flip Flop

  Sunlight Foundation's Policy Director John Wonderlich discusses the lifting communications ban on lobbyists for stimulus projects.

• CNN - John Wonderlich interviewed about stimulus lobbying

  Sunlight Foundation's Policy Director John Wonderlich discusses the lifting communications ban on lobbyists for stimulus projects.

• Politico - Washington tees off a little less

  Lobbyists and top donors have long enjoyed weekend getaways at exclusive courses, where a donation can buy several uninterrupted hours with a key lawmaker on an open green. But D.C. duffers say they are receiving fewer golf invitations than usual this year — and the number of destination golf weekends with lawmakers at hot spots like California’s Pebble Beach and Georgia’s Sea Island is dipping.

• Brattleboro Reformer - Dogging democracy

  A group of conservative House Democrats from the South and Midwest who call themselves the Blue Dogs are doing their best to stall and obstruct efforts to get a health care reform bill through Congress.

• Journal Star - Not too much to ask from Congress

  Call us naive, but requesting members of Congress to read the bills they pass doesn't seem like too much to ask. That's why the Journal Star editorial board is jumping on the bandwagon of a new movement that has drawn adherents from across the political spectrum.

• The Washington Post - BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS- Industry Is Generous To Influential Bloc

  On June 19, Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas made clear that he and a group of other conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs were increasingly unhappy with the direction that health-care legislation was taking in the House.

• National Journal: Under the Influence - Shedding Sunlight Through "Party Time"

  Want to know the what and where on the latest fundraiser for your lawmaker? Well, Under the Influence has added a new feature to help you keep track. We have added a box linking to the Sunlight Foundation's Party Time blog (www.politicalpartytime.org), which has a rolling list of fundraisers. You can find that box by scrolling down the right-hand side of the blog. You can see updates throughout the day.

• The New York Times: First Look - Visualizations: The Art of Times APIs

  If you’ve visited the Times Developer Network, you’ve probably noticed that it offers an application gallery. Collections of sample applications are often called “galleries” on the Web, and it’s not always an apt analogy. Browsing an assemblage of apps may be fun on a slow afternoon, but is it really akin to strolling through the wing of your choice at the Met?

• The Washingtion Times - Hot Button: Why Bother?

  Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat and House Judiciary Committee chairman, thinks requests to read legislation before voting on it are useless without some substantial legal assistance.

• National Journal - RULES OF THE GAME:Health Care Industry Unleashing Big Money

  The health care influence industry -- its well-connected players, its high-dollar ad campaigns and its massive lobbying expenditures -- is facing heightened scrutiny as the congressional health care debate intensifies.

• Irish Times - Harnessing power of the people online and for free

  WIRED: Crowdsourcing can be an effective means of getting labour-intensive work done online if the motivation is not money, writes

• The Washingtion Times - Hot Button- 'Crowdsourcing' earmarks

  Part of the trouble with tracking government earmarks is that the data can be awfully hard to track and put into one place. That's why Jim Harper will give away a Kindle reading device to the person who goes through the most government forms and uploads needed information to his earmark warehouse.

• CQ - Open Government — or ‘Transparency Theater’?

  One of the nastiest running battles between Capitol Hill and the White House when George W. Bush was president concerned what the administration should disclose to Congress and how. The fight would flare regularly and then fade into a classic “he said/she said” stalemate.

• Federal Computer Week - Open Government conference roundup

  The Open Government and Innovations Conference, held in Washington, D.C., last week, brought together more than 600 people from government, industry and public advocacy groups to discuss social media, acquisition reform and health care information technology. Among the speakers were Vivek Kundra, the federal government's chief information officer, and Aneesh Chopra, the White House chief technology officer.

• The Washington Post - Murtha, 12 Colleagues Back a Murky $160 Million Request

  Tucked into the voluminous congressional plan for U.S. military spending next year is $160 million intended to help Mexico's police buy U.S.-made first-responder radios.

• ABC News - Dems, GOP Court Lobbyists at Summer Getaways

  It's summertime, and the giving's easy, as Senate Democrats and Republicans throw weekend getaways for some of their well-connected donors.

• The Washington Post - Military Spending Bill Shows Limits of Public Disclosure Rules

  Tucked into the voluminous congressional plan for U.S. military spending next year is a $160 million pot of money intended to help Mexico's police buy American-made police radios.

• National Public Radio - Who Has Access To Max Baucus?

  Max Baucus is the nexus of dozens, even hundreds of interests in the health-care bill. In Congress since 1975, he's learned how to build relationships and how to leverage them.

• The Leaf-Chronicle - Obama promise broken

  Candidate Barack Obama promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would run a more open federal government. Although it's still early in his administration, thus far his actions are falling short of his earlier rhetoric.

• The Los Angles Times - TARP watchdog cites lack of transparency in Obama administration

  Reporting from Washington — As the watchdog of the government's massive bailout of the financial sector, Neil M. Barofsky had a simple question: What had the nation's banks done with all their bailout money?

• MSNBC - Recovery.gov's $2 million Ham

  Sunlight Foundation's Jake Brewer spoke with MSNBC's Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan. Jake discussed what's the real issue with a stimulus contract awarded to Clougherty Packing LLC for $1.19M for the listed service of 2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED found on the Recovery.gov website.

• The New York Times- The Caucus - Tracking Web Site That Tracks Spending

  Recovery.gov, the Web site set up by the Obama administration to help the public track stimulus money, may be causing more political problems than it’s solving.

• Los Angeles Times - Conservative nonprofit offered clout to FedEx -- for millions

  Reporting from Washington -- In an unusual look inside Washington's lobbying culture, a sequence of letters published last week exposed how a conservative nonprofit advocacy group apparently tried to sell its clout in a legislative battle between FedEx and UPS.

• CQ Weekly - A Mottle of Transparency

  One of the nastiest running battles between Capitol Hill and the White House when George W. Bush was president concerned what the administration should disclose to Congress and how. The fight would flare regularly and then fade into a classic "he said/she said" stalemate. Information would leak about some secret program. Lawmakers would object. And administration officials, Vice President Dick Cheney most prominent among them, would claim congressional leaders had been briefed and had given their approval.

• Democracy Now! - Healthcare Lobbying Mentioning Paul Blumenthal

  In their headline news, Democracy Now reported on the bipartisan group of centrist and conservative senators who called on Democratic and Republican leaders to put off a vote on health care reform legislation for 70 days. In the report they cite info from Paul's Blumenthal blog post (http://bit.ly/3x0heo) on how each of these senators has raised at least $1 million from the health and insurance sectors combined over the course of their respective careers.

• The New York Times - Data.gov to Face a Challenger From Sunlight Labs

  ata.gov, the US federal government's new catalog of sets of public data for outside developers to mashup and analyze, now faces some friendly competition. The Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan non-profit organization dedicated to government transparency, has announced that it will launch a National Data Catalog to go above and beyond what Data.gov offers.

• Washington Monthly - The Geekdom of Crowds

  My favorite bar in Washington is the Raven Grill, a shoebox-shaped (and -sized) dive in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. The second half of the bar’s official name is a total lie, unless you count the overpriced beef jerky on the shelf next to the liquor bottles. But the beer is sold at prices otherwise unheard of in D.C., the north wall of the men’s bathroom used to feature some very nice anatomical artwork, and the jukebox has been strategically stocked to thwart even the worst taste (the only real hazard is Bob Marley’s "Legend"). Most crucially, the Raven is an easily walkable twelve blocks from my row house in neighboring Columbia Heights. The only real problem is that in the past year, those twelve blocks have been the site of seven robberies, eight assaults, and two homicides.

• Federal News Radio - Sunlight Foundation launches own data catalogue

  Sunlight Labs' Director Clay Johnson discusses the launch of a new project, the National Data Catalogue.

• Information Week - Recovery.gov Development Contract Details Coming

  By Monday, the General Services Administration and Smartronix are expected to release a version of the contract to design and operate recovery.gov, a spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board said Tuesday.

• The Boston Globe - Lawmakers, read the bills before you vote

  SAY, DID you hear the one about the congressman who was asked to do his job? Talk about funny - this will crack you up!

• National Journal - Lobbyists Shed The Scarlet 'L'

  Have President Obama's rules that were intended to clamp down on lobbyists and increase transparency actually made it more difficult to track influence in Washington?

• Las Vegas Sun - If shockers done, Ensign could stay in office, many say

  If this happened to anyone else at any other workplace, the outcome would be certain. If Sen. John Ensign were, say, a casino manager, and he embarked on an affair with his underling’s wife, who also worked for him, he would be shown the door, or maybe thrown through it.

• Politico - Politicians hit golf course for money shots

  From Jonas Brothers concerts to Boston Red Sox games, politicians can always find a timely way to host a fundraiser. And, in the summertime, why not hit the greens to raise the greenbacks?

• Politico - Admin. touts more transparency

  Obama administration officials on Tuesday launched a flashy new section of USASpending.gov -- called the IT Dashboard ...

• The Los Angles Times - LAPD's public database omits nearly 40% of this year's crimes

  The Los Angeles Police Department's online crime map intended for public use has failed to include nearly 40% of serious crimes reported in the city, a Times analysis has found.

• The Wall Street Journal - Contract to Upgrade Recovery.gov Stimulates Criticism

  The announcement of an $18 million contract to revamp the administration’s stimulus Web site, www.recovery.gov recovery.gov, has been making waves all day, sparking sarcastic blog posts, angry tweets and even an online petition.

• WAMU - Power Breakfast: July 6

  Power Breakfast, a program produced by WAMU, one of Washington's National Public Radio affiliates, included quotes from Senior Fellow Bill Allison in a story about Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.)

• Newsweek - What’s in a Name?

  It's no secret that big energy companies find lots of ways to influence the debate in Washington: they make campaign contributions, they hire high-powered lobbyists and they invest heavily in advertising campaigns to persuade the public (and capital decision makers) that they are good "corporate citizens."

• The Salt Lake Tribune - GOP: Dems have closed door on open government

  The House was about to vote on a massive energy bill that would set limits on carbon emissions and add what GOP critics say would be a major consumer tax. But a copy of the final bill was nowhere to be found.

• The Union - Arianna Huffington: Lobbyists on a Roll

  Remember all that change Americans voted for in November? Well, there's been a change in the plans for change.

• National Public Radio - White House Pushes To Keep Visitor Logs Private

  It was a recurring theme of Barack Obama's presidential campaign — a call for openness: "Transparency and accountability, getting the American people involved, that's how we're gonna bring about change," candidate Obama said.

• Chronicle of Philanthropy - Group Sheds 'Sunlight' on Failed Bid

  While many charities proudly announce when they’ve won a government contract or grant, almost none publicly discuss why an attempted bid failed. On its blog, Sunlight Labs has done just that.

• Politico - Lawmakers challenged to read health care bill before voting

  Passing comprehensive health reform was already a huge task. Now a conservative group wants a pledge from every lawmaker to actually read the entire bill before voting.

• The Olympian - Time’s essential to properly review bills

  Congressman Brian Baird, D-Wash., has re-introduced a bill in Congress that would ensure the public and members of Congress have adequate time to review legislation before it comes up for a vote.

• The Patriot-News - Let legislators, public read bills before Congress votes on them

  On Friday, the House of Representatives voted on the American Clean Energy and Security Act, aka the "climate change bill." I'm going to sidestep the content of the bill today to make a different point: The legislation is more than 1,000 pages long.

• CNN - CNN: Jake Brewer discusses the Read the Bill campaign

• CNN - Last-Ditch Battle

  Louise Schiavone reports on the massive redrafting of the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Jake Brewer, Engagement Director, talks about how Congress didn't have time to Read the Bill before it passed.

• Chicago Tribune - Too big, too fast

  Remember that gargantuan climate change bill we told you about last week? It's gotten bigger. Over the weekend, the bill grew from 946 pages to 1,201 pages, according to the Sunlight Foundation. It's still changing, with important amendments in flux.

• KCRW To The Point - Healthcare Reform: Competition and the 'Public Option'

  Senior fellow Bill Allison weighs in on the debate over healthcare reform with PRI KCRW. He explains the role lobbying and money are influencing the discussion.

• Orange County Register - Climate change bill all pain, no gain

  The House of Representatives is preparing to vote Friday on a massive "cap and trade" bill purportedly designed to address global warming - though they call it "climate change" now since the globe hasn't warmed in the past few years - that will probably not be finished until minutes before voting begins. The reason is that proponents are still buying votes from moderate Democrats with special-interest favors and sweetheart deals. Not only will this bill do little or nothing to curb global warming - it's all pain and no gain - it has become a Christmas tree for politically connected industries and lobbyists.

• Clovis News Journal - Cap and trade bill polluted by politics

  The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on a massive “cap and trade” bill today purportedly designed to address global warming — though they call it “climate change” now since the globe hasn’t warmed in the last few years — that will probably not be finished until minutes before voting begins.

• Roll Call - Black Hole?

  The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has served notice that it will file an ethics complaint against Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), and we concur — without prejudging the case — that issues arising from his sexual affair with a former aide deserve examination.

• National Journal: Under the Influence - Public In Dark On Details Of Climate Bill

  Good government groups are using House Democrats' rush to pass climate change legislation to renew their call for more congressional deliberation and public input on major legislation.

• St. Paul Pioneer Press - Cap-and-trade energy bill: Has anybody read those 1,200 pages?

  Without regard for the merits or demerits of the bill itself, we pause to take note of criticism for the process by which the new cap-and-trade energy bill is headed for a vote on Friday in the U.S. House of Representatives.

• AM 600 KOGO - Cap and Trade

  Jake Brewer, Sunlight's engagement director, was interviewed on the Roger Hedgecock Show about Cap and Trade:

• Federal News Radio - Sunlight Foundation plans to bid on Recovery.gov

  The Recovery, Accountability and Transparency Board is working on the next generation of the Recovery.gov Web site.

• McClatchy - Conservative Democrats seek larger role in health care reform

  WASHINGTON — The Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative House Democrats who largely hail from Southern and Midwestern states, could prove critical in passage of the Obama administration's health care policies.

• The New York Times - White House Changes the Terms of a Campaign Pledge About Posting Bills Online

  During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised that once a bill was passed by Congress, the White House would post it online for five days before he signed it.

• The New York Times - White House Changes the Terms of Posting Bills Online

  A New York Times video report about Obama's campaign promise to put bills online for 5 days before signing. The segment interviews Ellen Miller, the executive director of the Sunlight Foundation.

• CNN - Obama and Lobbying Reform

  Ellen Miller discusses the disparity between the Obama campaign promise to not beholden to lobbyist's influence and the reality of how it is played out during the administration's first of year.

• Gazette Times - Editorial: Where there’s influence to buy, there’s a way

  A national news report last week shed some light on another tactic lobbyists use in their efforts to curry favor with lawmakers and other influential government officials. It’s all perfectly legal. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it passes the sniff test.

• The New York Times - Pound-Foolish Lesson for Congress

  So far no moat cleaning has shown up in Congressional fine print, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi is wisely ordering electronic disclosure of House members’ expense spending. The speaker grasped the transparency lesson of the scandal in the British Parliament, where members’ long-hidden expense account abuses forced the ouster of the speaker of the House of Commons.

• Seed Magazine - Gordon Brown reshuffles science, Europe and the pursuit of guilt-free energy, reviving the chestnut to fight climate change, creating clonal crops, and letting the sun shine on government.

  UK’s Blue Skies Turn to Gray? The mood in British science has been bleak of late. Two months ago came the announcement that, while their colleagues across the pond would be receiving a large stimulus package, scientists in the UK would have to do without. Then they found themselves fighting off an attempt by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to ban scientists who had a record of failing to get grant applications approved from even applying for grants at all. And now they find themselves dealing with the fallout from Gordon Brown’s reshuffling of the British government last Friday, when among other things, he abolished the Department of Universities, Innovation, and Skills—the umbrella organization that included the Ministry of Science and Innovation—and created a new Department of Business, Innovation, and Skills that would be home to a restructured Ministry of Science and Innovation that now includes a substantial military orientation.

• Roll Call - Heard on the Hill: Hit the Recall Button

  Hit the Recall Button. Among the advice companies regularly give their employees is to watch what they put into their e-mails — and apparently, that advice applies to campaign committees, too.

• Federal News Radio - SCOTUS Web site in need of an upgrade

  The Web site for the U.S. Supreme Court is hard to navigate and difficult to use.

• National Public Radio - Sen. Grassley's Twitter Broadside At Obama

  Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) used Twitter to criticize President Obama's call for action on health care while the president was in Paris over the weekend.

• National Journal - War To Regulate Lobbyists Is Far From Over

  The Obama administration has deftly defused a nasty argument with some of its allies over restrictions on lobbyists seeking economic stimulus money, but the war over how to regulate lobbyists is far from over, writes Eliza Newlin Carney in this week's "Rules of the Game" column.

• Federal News Radio - GroupOn and Rep. Pete Visclosky

  To www.grouponwashington.com. Lots of folks in government are talking about social media and the weird and wonderful things that can be done with this technology. Web 2.0 technology might be cool and interesting, but, the challenge is trying to find innovative ways to create real economic value using social media.

• Times Record News - Out in the open; Speaker's bill would allow constituents to view expenses

  If Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi makes good on her word, taxpayers will be able, for the first time, to monitor the spending habits of members of Congress with the click of a mouse.

• USA Today - Lobbyists unlimited in honoring lawmakers

  WASHINGTON — On a mild evening last September, Citigroup lobbyists mingled with South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn at a rooftop reception — complete with miniature putting greens — as the company hosted a party to honor the third most powerful Democrat in the House and raise money for one of his favorite golf charities.

• Congress Daily - Pelosi Orders Posting Of Quarterly Expense Reports Online

  The quarterly expense reports that detail how members of Congress spend taxpayer dollars allotted to their offices each year will soon be available to the public online, House Speaker Pelosi said Wednesday.

• Roll Call - Disbursements Set to Move Online

  Public interest groups praised Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision Wednesday to put Members’ official expenditures online, but they cautioned that the usability of such a system remains to be seen.

• CQ - House Members Must Report Expenses Online

  House members will begin reporting their office expenses online rather than through quarterly books, under an order from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

• National Journal - Pelosi Calls For Online Expenditure Docs

  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked the chamber's Chief Administration Officer Dan Beard to enforce a new level of disclosure for official expenditures from the offices of House members and to post the documents online as soon as possible. She announced the expansion of House rules, which is part of her larger effort to increase transparency and accountability on Capitol Hill, on her blog Wednesday. Member's expenses are currently collected and published as bound paper volumes called the "Statements of Expenditures" but Congress has not made this public information available in an online format, the Sunlight Foundation's John Wonderlich said on his group's blog. The watchdog group called for online disclosure of the expense records in December 2008 and again last Wednesday, he pointed out.

• National Journal - Pelosi Directs Reps to Post Expenditures Online

  In the spirit of the Age of Transparency, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced that members of the House are now required to disclose expenditures online, the Sunlight Foundation announced today. Sunlight, a government reform organization, has been advocating for this measure since March 2008.

• The Wall Street Journal - Pelosi Orders Online Access to House Expense Reports

  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered expense reports for House offices to be published on the Internet. The books recording each House office’s expenses have been available only in print form in a basement office on Capitol Hill or through federal libraries.

• Roll Call - Honda Enlists Public in Web Design

  Like many Members of Congress, Rep. Mike Honda Tweets his day-to-day thoughts, posts hearings on YouTube and friends constituents on Facebook.

• National Journal - Start-Up Taps Obama E-Gov Energy

  The Seattle-based start-up that helped fuel President Obama's Web-based transition team donor disclosure effort has changed its name, hired a Washington, D.C. public relations firm and on Tuesday launched a social network that aggregates public data from around the world in a single destination. Socrata, formerly known as Blist, is piggybacking on the administration's zeal for open government by offering a Web site intended to increase agencies' transparency; promote civic participation and community collaboration; and improve policymaking. Building on more than a year of beta test feedback from more than 40,000 public and private sector customers, Socrata.com initially is providing free access to more than 200 public datasets. The Obama administration recently unveiled Data.gov, a Web destination for citizens to gain access to agencies' raw data feeds. Socrata offers a wide range of feeds on everything from government agencies to those bilked by financier Bernard Madoff to seafood and chicken recipes.

• National Public Radio - U.S. Puts Government On The Web

  The White House has launched several new Web sites as part of its "Open Government Initiative." The Obama administration calls it a groundbreaking expansion of citizen access to the data and process of government. NPR correspondent Andrea Seabrook quotes Sunlight Executive Director Ellen Miller saying the government should make it a priority to get the most important information up sooner.

• National Journal - Inside Washington

  There's a backup at the sausage factory. Since the mid-1990s, the amount of legislation introduced on Capitol Hill has nearly doubled, from 6,500 bills entered during the 104th Congress to 11,000 in the 110th. But the chances of a bill becoming law haven't improved during that time. According to a recent study by the Sunlight Foundation, only 4 percent of bills in the 110th Congress became law -- about the same number as during the 104th session. Most legislation died upon referral to oversight committees. The House introduced nearly twice as many bills as the Senate during the 110th Congress -- 7,300 to 3,700 -- and that's about par for the course. Recent history shows that the House produces one and a half to two times as much legislation as the Senate. "More legislation being introduced is a reflection of technology," one Hill staffer said. "With the public's real-time access to what's going on, it's less acceptable to be a backbencher lawmaker."

• Roll Call - Boehner Suggestion on White House Web Site Gets Most Support

  House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) idea for a 72-hour public review period of major spending bills received nearly 1,000 votes on a White House Web site dedicated to opening the process of government to the general public.

• The Fresno Bee - Cardoza ducked out of first lady's Merced speech to hold fundraiser at the Preakness

  Remember that Rep. Dennis Cardoza's spokesman wouldn't say why the Merced congressman wasn't attending first lady Michelle Obama's speech to UC Merced's pioneer class?

• Time Magazine - Fulfilling a Campaign Promise: Better Access to Useless Junk

  In an effort to make good on his campaign promise to increase government transparency, President Barack Obama's Administration has launched data.gov, a website intended to enhance public access to vast troves of previously inaccessible government information. Sound exciting? It isn't. Conspiracy junkies hoping to tap into secret CIA files or to find out who really killed JFK are out of luck. The data catalog includes just 47 documents—most of which would only appeal to those desperate for information on migratory bird patterns or unconsolidated stream sediments. Read "A Brief History of the National Archives.

• Washington Internet Daily - Administration Web Sites, Comments Process, Promise Change

  Government is becoming more open in fits and starts, a sampling of activists' opinions shows. The much-anticipated Data.gov and a plan to overhaul the much-derided Regulations.gov are a good start, as is the comments process for open government ideas in general, the activists said. The sites are hardly perfect, they said, saying they don't expect perfection. They do expect some basics, though, and at least one critic thinks the Obama Administration is letting the bells and whistles get ahead of simple ideas like providing information that can be found easily.

• The (Baton Rouge, La.) Advocate - Our Views: A new light for earmarks

  In “The Purloined Letter,” the stolen missive is hidden in plain sight. Edgar Allan Poe lived long before the Internet, but members of Congress have only gained creativity in hiding things that are supposed to be in plain sight.

• Roll Call - Imperfectly Clear

  Democratic Congressional leaders can legitimately pat themselves on the back for increasing the transparency of the earmarking process — which only raises the question, “Why not make it perfectly clear?” Right now, it’s far from tha

• WAMU - Transforming Government Data

  Sunlight Lab's Director Clay Johnson was a guest on the nationally-syndicated The Kojo Nnamdi Show, a program produced by National Public Radio-affiliated WAMU FM, where he joined a panel discussion on how non-profits and cities like Washington, D.C., are enlisting help from civic-minded developers to help make government data more open and usable.

• The New York Times - Data.gov

  When he was information technology chief for Washington, D.C., Vivek Kundra delivered huge caches of information to the Web for public use -- from controversial hourly pay rates of city contractors to the daily pickups of road kill. We hope he does the same and more, now that Mr. Kundra is chief information officer for the federal government.

• American Public Media - Data.gov opens for business

  The Obama administration has launched Data.gov, a much-anticipated site where citizens can download raw data from federal agencies. The idea is to encourage programmers and others to make new applications and mashups based on information from such agencies as the National Weather Service, the Census Bureau, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Center for Health Statistics.

• Federal News Radio - OMB reveals transparency roadmap

  The Obama administration promised more transparency and collaboration when it took office exactly four months ago. And yesterday, it started to show what it means.

• Roll Call - Senate Earmark Disclosure Varies Widely

  Most Senators appear to be technically complying with the chamber’s earmark disclosure rules, but a lack of uniformity in how earmarks are reported can make it difficult to get an accurate picture of how the practice is being used by different Members.

• Associated Press - House members seek $136.3 billion in road projects

  WASHINGTON -- Abiding by a new policy of openness in seeking projects for their home districts, House members have requested $136.3 billion in earmarks in a highway and transit funding bill the House will take up this summer.

• The Washington Post - White House Rolls Out Web Site, Initiatives to Boost Transparency

  On his first full day in office, President Obama issued his first executive order directing federal officials to come up with ideas for making government information more visible and accessible to the public within 120 days.

• Federal News Radio - Obama administration creates transparency websites

  Significant milestones for the Obama administration's transparency initiative today.

• Associated Press - Lawmakers flood House with pet highway projects

  There are lots of bridges to cross and roads to travel for lawmakers bent on ending the time-honored practice of funneling money to their home states: at least 6,800 of them.

• CongressDaily - Public Interest Groups Want Transparency In The Spotlight

  As OMB, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the General Services Administration prepare to issue recommendations for how agencies can show transparency, public participation and collaboration outlined by President Obama on his first day in office, public interest groups want a chance to weigh in.

• Washington Examiner - 96 senators post their earmarks online

  One of the unsung heroes in the nation's capital is Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation. Bill is a former investigative reporter and has for the past three years at Sunlight been a leader in the trans-partisan movement for greater transparency and accountability in government.

• Politico - GOP cashes in on The Boss

  Bruce Springsteen campaigned aggressively for the past two Democratic presidential candidates, but that didn’t stop Republicans from joining Democrats in cashing in on the Boss’ Monday night concert in Washington.

• WUSA - Using Springsteen To Raise Political Dollars

  Popular culture and political expediency met in an everlasting kiss at Washington's Verizon Center Monday night as Members of Congress and their political action committees used a Bruce Springsteen concert to raise money for the everlasting needs of their campaign coffers.

• WUSA - Born to Fund: Lobbyists cash in on Bruce Springsteen

  Sunlight Foundation's Bill Allison explains how lobbyists and PACs cash in on Bruce Springsteen's DC concert with WUSA Channel News 9 :

• Politico - Lawmakers like Barney Frank score campaign cash on their way to work

  On a recent Capitol Hill morning, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank stopped by a swanky bistro for breakfast — and walked out with another $18,000 or so for his campaign coffers.

• Washington Internet Daily - Washington Internet Daily

  The OpentheGovernment.org coalition urged the Senate Rules Committee to hold hearings and vote on a resolution making Congressional Research Service reports publicly available.

• Roll Call - 83 Lawmakers Reveal Transportation Earmark Requests

  Of the 321 lawmakers who made requests, just 83 House Members disclosed their transportation earmark requests for the upcoming transportation reauthorization bill, according to a government transparency group.

• The Washington Post - Letter: On the Trail of Stimulus Spending

  The Internet age demands that states and cities have easy-to-use, searchable databases that account for how tax dollars are spent. Yet, as the April 30 Fed Page article "Tracking How Stimulus Dollars Are Tracked" pointed out, this is not how information is currently reported. All too often, data that are to be "publicly accessible" are viewable in nothing more than incomprehensible spreadsheets posted on Web sites.

• Santa Fe Reporter - Crocodile Tears

  One major difference between conventional journalism and the blogosphere, according to journalism scholar Roy Peter Clark, is the first has a well-established tradition of “finding out, sorting out and checking out,” while the latter is still a chaotic laboratory of ethical experimentation.

• The Hill - Chamber adds voice against White House lobbying rules

  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has weighed in with the White House against lobbying restrictions placed on the stimulus package, arguing the rules could limit its members’ First Amendment rights.

• Washington Times - Forecast cloudy for transparency

  It's an open secret on Capitol Hill that most laws get passed without being read in full by lawmakers.

• The Denver Post - Transparency takes a big hit

  It's a shame the program to track federal stimulus funds won't be active until October – and not fully online even then.

• New York Times - Sharing Congress’s Research

  The Congressional Research Service investigates important issues and produces detailed, well-written reports that are available to members of Congress but not the general public. A resolution has been introduced in the Senate to make these reports freely available online. It would be an important step forward for government openness, and it would narrow the information gap between Washington insiders and ordinary Americans.

• Lebanon Daily News - Still opaque

  When it comes to government spending, waste and graft are always a risk. So it was laudable of President Barack Obama to seek full transparency in how the $787 billion stimulus package was to be spent -- with the details center stage for all to see.

• CNN - Ellen Miller on CNN Special Investigations Unit

  Ellen Miller was interviewed on CNN's Special Investigations Unit to discuss the stimulus plan and tracking the money.

• Mother Jones - Meet K Street's Worst Nightmare

  It's mid-March, and the marble-walled hallway of the Dirksen Senate Office Building is scattered with lobbyists and congressional aides who are gathered in huddles of two and three, chatting in hushed tones. Meetings like this are as much a fixture of Capitol Hill as the famous bean soup in the Senate dining room, but there is something decidedly peculiar going on today. One of the lobbyists is doing the unthinkable. She's lobbying for more oversight and regulation of lobbying, and she's throwing around the T-word ("transparency") with abandon.

• Information Week - Microsoft Offers Cloud-Based Public Data Hosting With Azure

  As the American public and the Obama administration push the government to post more public data online, federal agencies are struggling with how to do so, and how to make that data available in a form that's usable to the public and to third-party developers who want to use the data for their own Web applications and services.

• Politico - Senate picks up the slack on data

  The stodgy Senate is finally ready to embrace technology and put roll call votes in an easy-to-use format for tech geeks.

• USA Today - Details thin on stimulus contracts

  Although President Obama has vowed that citizens will be able to track "every dime" of the $787 billion stimulus bill, a government website dedicated to the spending won't have details on contracts and grants until October and may not be complete until next spring — halfway through the program, administration officials said.

• Roll Call - Hanging Tough on Lobby Restrictions

  The White House’s top ethics cop said on Tuesday that “there is a process” in place for enforcing the new lobbying rules on the books since President Barack Obama was sworn in on Jan. 20.

• Washington Examiner - Senate joins 21st century with high-tech web postings

  Sometimes it seems that encouraging greater transparency in government is the only issue that still attracts bipartisan efforts. Be that as it may, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, deserve praise for persuading the world’s most exclusive debating society that it should post its voting record on the Internet using the most advanced technology possible. In this case, that means posting Senate vote data using what is known among Internet programmers and entrepreneurs as “XML” programming language. Briefly put, as the Sunlight Foundation’s John Wonderlich explains, XML-based posting “encourages advanced processing and analysis, making votes legible to both humans and computers, and giving us a new view on how Senators vote.” It is no exaggeration to say XML is the key element in making possible Web 2.0, with its marvelous inter-activity among multiple users and sophisticated visualization applications that draw from multiple web sites and databases.

• Politico - Stimulus memo has lobbyists on edge

  The White House doesn’t want lobbyists bugging it about economic stimulus funding decisions, and it seems to be getting its way.

• New York Times - Group Seeks Public Access to Congressional Research

  American taxpayers spend more than $100 million a year supporting the work of the Congressional Research Service, a little-known but highly regarded division of the Library of Congress.

• CSPAN - Washington Journal with Tom Lee

  Tom Lee appeared on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" and took questions about Recovery.gov and Sunlight's work.

• USA Today - Secrecy gone wild

  When the question is whether to make information public or hide it, the federal government's default button has long been stuck on concealment.

• Politico - Group wants Senate to get 'techy'

  A bipartisan group of seven senators would like the upper chamber to join the digital age.

• Roll Call - Electronic Archiving So Far Is One Tough Slog

  Back in December 2006, the National Archives and Records Administration held little more than 1.4 gigabytes of Congressional electronic records - information that would fit on the smallest iPod, with room to spare.

• Government Computer News - Remixing government data

  Last year, before he took on the role of federal chief information officer, Vivek Kundra came up with a new twist on the idea of government by the people: Let the people build some public-facing online government applications.

• The Washington Post - Google Unveils New Tool To Dig for Public Data

  Google launched a new search tool yesterday designed to help Web users find public data that is often buried in hard-to-navigate government Web sites.

• Washington Examiner - Obama’s transparency is clear as mud

  Other than the blinding speed with which he abandoned the moderate image so crucial to his winning the White House, President Obama has done little since Jan. 20 to surprise anybody who listened closely to what he said on the 2008 campaign trail.

• Fortune - The Business Guide to Congress

  They are not your friends, but you can still make your case. To help navigate this tricky terrain, we offer a business leader's guide to the new Capitol Hill.

• Washington Times - Hot Button

  Not so transparent

• National Journal - New Media Experts Polled By NationalJournal.com See Room For Improvement In The Administration's Web Efforts

  Barack Obama's presidential campaign was an online juggernaut, and the new administration has proposed to use that technological wizardry to make government more transparent. But while new media observers give the team's two most ambitious Web sites -- the overhaul of WhiteHouse.gov and the stimulus-tracking Recovery.gov -- an "A" for effort, the consensus is that Obama's online efforts have a long way to go in the next 100 days.

• Agence France-Presse - Obama's e-government off to good start

  Campaigning for president, Barack Obama pledged to bring greater transparency and openness to the White House and to use technology to reboot government.

• Politico - Online voting records user unfriendly

  In January 1995, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich cut the virtual ribbon on the first-ever online congressional clearinghouse — a moment hailed as a breakthrough in government transparency.

• The News & Observer - House budget writers are at your mercy Tuesday

  Delegation's favorite words

• Federal News Radio - Redesigning government

  The administration plans to launch Data.gov later this year. The site will be dedicated to making government data available to the American people, but one group is not waiting for the site to launch in order to make suggestions. Sunlight Labs has created a mock up of the site as they would like to see it. Clay Johnson is the director of Sunlight Labs.

• Star-Banner - Ammo scarce after many stock up

  In 1976, Southern rock legend Lynyrd Skynyrd scored a hit with the rollicking tune "Gimme Back My Bullets."

• Government Computer News - Sunlight Foundation reveals winners in its Apps for America contest

  The Sunlight Foundation has announced the winners of a recent contest for mashup-styled applications that reuse legislative data in ways that can better inform the public.

• National Public Radio - 21st Century Crowbars Help Pry Open Government

  The Obama administration is trying to usher in a new era of transparency in government — call it Government 2.0.

• Politico - Low-tech Senate slow rolls disclosure

  You can learn instantly via Twitter that Claire McCaskill needs an iPhone repair or that Chuck Grassley burned his leg on his Iowa farm.

• Commonwealth Journal - Rogers defends ‘earmark’ requests

  Somerset — It’s clear to see that the thumbprint of U.S. Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers is all over Pulaski County. The question is whether or not that’s a good thing.

• Associated Press - Dodd taps Wall Street money for re-election

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Wealthy Wall Street executives may be outcasts to some Americans, but not to Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd.

• Corpus Christi Caller-Times - Ortiz seeks $661M in earmarks

  CORPUS CHRISTI — U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, has requested $661 million in congressional earmarks for 2010, much of it for the three military bases and two ports in his district.

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy - Nonprofit Lobbyists Protest Restrictions Imposed by Obama Administration

  People who hear about President Obama's efforts to curb the influence of lobbyists on government might conjure up the image of someone like Jack Abramoff, the high-profile lobbyist who was convicted of corruption in 2006.

• Arizona Daily Star - AZ congressional talk is, in a word, revealing

  Politicians would like us to take them at their word.

• Salt Lake Tribune - Chaffetz loves to say 'country,' not 'cot'

  We were a little surprised that Rep. Jason Chaffetz's favorite word to say on the House floor wasn't "cot." After all, the freshman Utah Republican loves to talk about how he sleeps on a folding bed in his office to save himself cash.

• Lexington (Ky.) Herald Leader - New rules provide early look at Rogers' $466 million in earmarks

  WASHINGTON — For nearly 30 years, U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers has used his sway on powerful committees to steer billions in federal funds into his Eastern Kentucky district.

• Chattanoga Times Free Press' - Tennessee congressmen line up for earmarks

  WASHINGTON — Three East Tennessee lawmakers in the U.S. House are asking the federal government to spend more than $358 million in taxpayer money next year on projects in their districts.

• Charlotte Observer - Business PACs backing Burr

  WASHINGTON Political action committees representing business interests contributed nearly half of U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's $700,000 campaign take in the first three months of this year.

• KSL News Radio - Study shows congressional delegation's most-used words

  WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new list shows the most common words spoken by Utah's senators and representatives. Capitolwords.org analyzes everything on the Congressional Record over the past year.

• Rapid City Journal - Editorial: Earmark rule opens the process

  Anything to make the mind-numbing Congressional budget process more transparent and understandable just has to be applauded.

• The Washington Post - Web Site Takes Politicians at Their Word

  Ever notice how often Roscoe Bartlett says "oil"? Neither had we! The western Maryland Republican used the word 1,914 times in the past two years, far more than any other member of Congress.

• Washington Independent - Campaign Contributions Up, Despite Economic Downturn

  As the nation’s economy mires in recession, most Americans are anticipating lower earnings by making do with less – but not those who call Capitol Hill home.

• Capital News Connection - Two San Diego Lawmakers Criticized Over Fundraisers

  Two San Diego congressmen are hosting big fundraisers over their spring break recess -- one in Florida... and one on Mission Bay. Some critics say these events shut out voters in favor of wealthy donors who are buying access to power. Matt Laslo has the story from Washington.

• McClatchy Newspapers - Earmark? Controversial term has vanished in Congress

  Recession? Bailout? Stimulus? Deficit?

• New York Post - Word'up to Pols Passions

  WASHINGTON -- For Rep. Charles Rangel, it's all about the "Caribbean."

• Federal Computer Week - Lawmakers lag in publishing schedules online

  Only four senators and six House members post their daily schedules on their official Web sites, but 22 senators and 58 representatives use Twitter to update constituents on their activities, according to the OpenCongress Web site.

• San Francisco Examiner - Stop the stalling and show America the bailout books

  Unwarranted secrecy regarding the largest disbursement of public funds in U.S. history continues in the executive branch. Congress should finally exercise its oversight authority and find out where every last bailout dollar has been spent.

• Associated Press - Nonprofit aims to broaden reach of campaign data

  A nonprofit group that specializes in databases tracking the influence of money in politics is making its information available to others.

• McClatchy Newspapers - Lawmakers post earmarks online, but good luck finding them

  Want to learn about the earmarks, the federally funded local projects that your member of Congress wants to stick in the federal budget?

• Rapid City Journal - Dakota Power motor design among many earmarks on Herseth Sandlin's list

  To the untrained eye, it looks like an odd assortment of welded iron, salvaged truck parts and homemade circuit panels hidden in the back of a nondescript machine shop.

• Newsday - Others should follow Gillibrand's sunlight lead

  The Internet has become a cyber eye on Washington that members of Congress should embrace and expand.

• Louisville Courier Journal - Earmark lists can be hard to find

  WASHINGTON — Kentucky and Southern Indiana members of the U.S. House are asking Congress to spend more than $1 billion in the next federal budget on local projects and programs — though you might be hard-pressed to learn the details on your own.

• Columbus Dispatch - Local lawmakers reveal earmark-money requests

  This was a deadline skirted by many lawmakers, but not central Ohio's five members of the U.S. House.

• The (Alliance, Ohio) Review - Boccieri hopes earmarks bring federal funds to Alliance, Stark County

  U.S. Rep John Boccieri, D-Alliance, requested almost $900,000 in funds for Alliance city projects, according to his list of recently revealed earmarks.

• Portland Press Herald - Pingree, Michaud disclose Maine earmark requests

  U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud have filed 240 budget requests – so-called earmarks – for hundreds of millions of dollars to fund projects in Maine in the coming fiscal year, according to new data disclosed online.

• The New Mexican - U.S. Rep. Lujan seeks millions for N.M.

  Freshman U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., is asking for nearly $67 million in "earmarks" for federal government spending.

• Watertown Daily Times - Sen. Gillibrand praised for online posting of daily schedule

  WASHINGTON — For constituents who just have to know what Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand is doing every day, the senator now posts her daily schedule online, continuing a practice she started in the House of Representatives.

• Associated Press - Study: Tax changes worth billions to businesses

  Lawrence — Three law professors at Kansas University have completed a study suggesting that large U.S. corporations won billions of dollars in tax savings by lobbying Congress to change the tax code four years ago.

• Computer Week - Obama's open data era 'coming soon'

  The U.S. may be close to making it easier for application developers to tear into government data as early as next month on its new Web site, data.gov.

• Federal Computer Week - Groups push for lobbying Web site

  Watchdog groups want President Barack Obama to take his lobbying disclosure goals a step further by creating a Web-based system to aggregate and track reports of meetings between lobbyists and federal agency executives.

• Stars and Stripes - Gates' plan for acquisitions is seen as a start

  ARLINGTON, Va. — The foundations of the defense industry rumbled on Monday when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates proposed expanding the department’s own acquisition workforce by 39,000 jobs through a combination of hiring 9,000 new workers and converting 30,000 more from private defense contractor employees into civil servants.

• The Kansas City Star - KU professors found companies realized big tax savings by spending for lobbyists

  A 22,000 percent return on investment?

• Atlantic City Press - LoBiondo, Adler disclose 'earmark' funding requests

  Southern New Jersey’s congressional delegation met a federal deadline for publicly posting their funding requests, revealing for the first time how much money they are seeking for various projects.

• Cleveland Plain Dealer - Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge doesn't reveal earmarks she is seeking

  WASHINGTON -- Want to know what local projects your member of Congress wants taxpayer dollars to pay for next year? It takes patience and time, even with newly instituted congressional rules designed to shed light on how members of Congress use "earmarks" to steer money to pet projects

• Allentown Morning Call - Online earmarks bring some budget transparency

  U.S. Rep. Tim Holden is seeking hundreds of thousands of federal dollars to promote Pennsylvania wines. U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach is asking for money to add a winter jaguar exhibit at Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown. And U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent wants $500,000 to renovate the Souderton train station.

• Washington Examiner - OpEd: Congress plays hide-and-seek with earmarks

  On his official House Web site, Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., writes about economic development and job creation.

• The Hartford (Conn.) Courant - Caucus: If Money Grew On Tree

  After revealing its willingness to pay for bridges to nowhere, Congress agreed this year to better inform taxpayers about earmarks — those often furtive efforts by members to slip vast sums into the federal budget for pet projects.

• Bloomberg News - Obama’s Spending Spurs Former U.S. Lawmakers to Join Lobbyists

  Lobbying, scorned during the 2008 campaign, is an occupation of choice among former members of Congress looking for jobs.

• Sun Newspapers - Paulsen's first 100 tweets: Measuring stick for members of congress may have changed for good

  Pundits and the media tend to make a big deal about an elected official's "first 100 days" in office, but is that really the best indicator of the value of that official's governance?

• CQ Politics - House's Earmark Disclosures Create a Few Headaches

  A new requirement for members of Congress to post their requests for earmarks online has yielded a bonanza of information for citizens, taxpayer advocates and others with an interest in the process.

• Detroit News - Watchdog group blasts Michigan earmark lists

  Washington -- Michigan's House delegation did a poor job of posting earmarks on their Web pages in an easy-to-find way, a good-government group said Tuesday, potentially frustrating taxpayers who want to see how their tax dollars are being spent.

• Bellingham News - U.S. Rep. Larsen releases earmark request list, Whatcom County could get more than $13M

  TV show host Stephen Colbert probably would be pretty displeased with U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen's earmark requests. Why? For its support of bears, of course.

• Mississippi - Earmark requests now public

  WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner's wish list runs for seven standard-sized pages and seeks money for everything from an elevated water tank in Atmore to a new federal courthouse in Mobile.

• Washington Examiner - Here's something that should blow your mind .... if you care about liberty and the republic, that is

  Can you imagine having a software tool in your laptop that requires a few clicks to reveal the key relationships between a Member of Congress, companies getting federal contracts and political groups supporting or opposing that senator or congressman?

• Roll Call - Earmark Requests Detailed in Database

  In an effort to make it easier to find Members’ earmark requests, the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation unveiled a database today listing every Representative and providing, when available, a link to their requests.

• Fort Collins (Colo.) Coloradoan - Markey seeks $19.5 million in earmarks

  Rep. Betsy Markey is seeking $19.5 million in federal earmarks for her district, with most of the money going to research programs at CSU.

• Quad City Times - Hare, Braley seek $545 million in earmarks

  The Quad-Cities’ two congressmen have requested $545 million in earmarks for the 2010 fiscal year, according to disclosures on their Web sites.

• Washington Times - Obama's stimulus spending website short on details

  Concerns are piling up that www.recovery.gov, the Obama Administration's online clearinghouse for stimulus spending information, isn't producing the kind of transparency it promised.

• Detroit Free Press - Footnote could cost taxpayers billions

  Read any good footnotes lately?

• Web2Expo - Conversation with Ellen Miller

  Tim O'Reilly sits down with Sunlight's Executive Director Ellen Miller to discuss the ins and out of goverment transparency:

• Wall Street Journal - A Tweak to Bailout Deal Makes Bank Stock Pricier

  WASHINGTON -- A tweak by the Treasury Department to its contracts with banks could cost taxpayers billions of dollars if the government exercises its right to purchase common stock in the firms.

• Roll Call - K Street Signups High in First Quarter

  The economy may be in the tank, but the influence business isn’t going anywhere.

• Agence France Press - Obama holds first White House 'online town hall'

  WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President Barack Obama fielded online questions from the public Thursday in a live White House webcast, tackling topics such as jobs, education, health care and even legalizing marijuana.

• CNN - Questions pour in for Obama's online town hall meeting

  During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt reassured anxious Americans through his famous fireside chats over the radio.

• SkyNews - John Wonderlich interviewed about online government participation

  John Wonderlich, the Sunlight Foundation's policy director, is interviewed about Obama's media presence and the administration's goals for transparency and participation.

• CNN - Campbell Brown Endorses Read the Bill

  CNN's Campbell Brown endorses Sunlight Foundation's Read The Bill campaign:

• Politico - GOP licks chops over Dem stumbles

  Three days after Barack Obama became president, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made a prediction: Democrats would make big mistakes that would play into the Republicans’ hands going into the 2010 midterm elections.

• The Washington Post - Some Activists Barred From Government Work

  Nonprofit and public interest groups are scrambling to adapt to President Obama's stringent new ethics guidelines, which are so sweeping that they have blocked the ability of many sympathetic activists to get hired by the new administration.

• Yuma Sun - Sunshine Week: Senate should make campaign contributions transparent

  Imagine if Google worked this way: You type in a search term, and, at Google headquarters, an army of workers in the search department printed out the contents of every responsive Web page, then hauled them in wheelbarrows to a results department, where another army of workers typed the contents of those pages back into their computers.

• National Journal - Foreign Influence Remains Hard To Track

  The American corporate, professional, and ideological interests that pour billions of dollars into K Street make headlines almost every day. Yet the media seldom cover the foreign governments and overseas special interests that hire Washington's influence industry to affect government policies in the United States.

• Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch - Clear the Muck

  Unlike their counterparts who run for the House -- not to mention candidates for president -- candidates for the U.S. Senate submit campaign-finance reports on paper, rather than electronically. They submit the paperwork to the Senate Office of Public Records, which then trucks it over to the Federal Election Commission, which then pays clerical staff to enter the information into electronic databases.

• Wired - Officials Hoard Valuable Databases Funded by Taxpayers

  Government agencies across the country are sitting on gigabytes of valuable digital data that could be mashed, mixed and re-organized in crafty ways by Web 2.0 entrepreneurs and public interest groups engaged in everything from government oversight, to providing practical information to Americans.

• National Journal Congress Daily - Holder Shifts Rules On Freedom Of Information Act Requests

  Attorney General Holder on Thursday sent a memo to the heads of all executive branch departments and agencies telling them to apply a presumption of openness when fielding Freedom of Information Act requests.

• CNN Money - Recovery.gov tries for citizen accounting

  At first glance, it seems the government's online attempt at tracking where and how stimulus money is being used isn't delivering on its promise of unparalleled transparency

• Washington Times - Treasury cleared way for AIG bonuses

  The Obama administration and one of its key allies in Congress belatedly acknowledged Wednesday that they were responsible more than a month ago for clearing the way for large bonuses to be paid inside taxpayer-supported companies like AIG, undercutting the White House's attempts to distance itself from a growing political embarrassment.

• Nashua Telegraph - Senate should make donor money transparent

  Imagine if Google worked this way: You type in a search term, and, at Google headquarters, an army of workers in the search department printed out the contents of every responsive Web page, then hauled them in wheelbarrows to a results department, where another army of workers typed the contents of those pages back into their computers.

• Winston-Salem Journal - Making contributions transparent

  Imagine if Google worked this way: You type in a search term, and, at Google headquarters, an army of workers in the search department printed out the contents of every responsive Web page, then hauled them in wheelbarrows to a results department, where another army of workers typed the contents of those pages back into their computers. Crazy? Indeed, but that's exactly how the Senate handles its campaign-finance reports.

• Business Week - Obama: Feeling Our Financial Pain?

  The man elected to lead the U.S. out of its financial crisis has experienced some financial pain himself.

• Philly Daily News - OpEd: Gov't. Watchdogs.com

  IF YOU do the math, you quickly see why a senator from Missouri can't personally answer phone calls from each of her 5.9 million constituents.

• St. Petersburg Times - Obama skirts own ban on employing former lobbyists in White House

  As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama refused contributions from lobbyists. As president, he signed an executive order forbidding lobbyists from holding White House jobs dealing with policy matters they recently handled in their lobbying careers.

• Pacific Daily News - OpEd: Senators' paper reports insult public

  Federal election law requires candidates for the House of Representatives and the presidency to electronically file lists of their donors and their expenses. Unwilling to change with the times, senators continue to follow the practice they adopted in the 1970s. They file paper reports of their campaign disclosures with the Senate Office of Public Records, which in turn has them shipped to the Federal Election Commission, which must then spend about $250,000 and untold hours having the records typed in, line by line, to the Federal Election Commission's databases.

• The Standard-Speaker - Do public business in the open

  This is Sunshine Week, the annual effort to bring the activities of government at every level squarely into the public eye where they belong.

• The Standard-Speaker - State Senate records still in the dark

  Tradition is regarded with reverence in the U.S. Senate, but it’s time for senators to put away the quill pens and parchment when it comes to telling Americans how much money they raise for their election campaigns.

• USA Today - OpEd: Internet empowerment

  How powerful is the Internet in getting crucial safety information out to the public? In one case, that information went out 707 times per minute. That's how often, on average, people seeking information about salmonella-tainted peanut butter clicked on a website and widget sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over a six-week period a total of nearly 44 million hits.

• Hurchinson News - Group: Roberts trying to block campaign bill

  TOPEKA - A government watchdog group took aim at a Kansas U.S. senator Monday over the issue of requiring senators to electronically file their campaign finance reports.

• Columbus Dispatch - Huge bills often little read before quick votes

  WASHINGTON -- Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy is a freshman member of Congress, but the Columbus Democrat says that doesn't mean she should act like a freshman in college.

• The (Petersburg, Va.) Progress-Index - More News

  Tradition is regarded with reverence in the U.S. Senate but even that has its limits. It’s time for senators to put away the quill pens and parchment when it comes to telling Americans how much money they raise for their election campaigns.

• The Patriot Ledger - SPEAK OUT: Senate should make campaign contributions transparent

  Imagine if Google worked this way: You type in a search term, and, at Google headquarters, an army of workers printed out the contents of every responsive Web page, then hauled them in wheelbarrows to a results department, where another army of workers typed the contents of those pages back into their computers. Crazy? Indeed, but that’s exactly how the Senate handles its campaign finance reports.

• Salt Lake Tribune - Senate's paper filing method under fir

  The archaic process is the same every year: Senate candidates electronically track the contributions they receive, print out the forms and hand them to the Senate secretary, who hands them to the Federal Elections Commission, which hires someone to type up the data electronically again.

• The Patriot Ledger - SUNSHINE WEEK: Senate should make campaign contributions transparent

  Imagine if Google worked this way: You type in a search term, and, at Google headquarters, an army of workers printed out the contents of every responsive Web page, then hauled them in wheelbarrows to a results department, where another army of workers typed the contents of those pages back into their computers. Crazy? Indeed, but that's exactly how the Senate handles its campaign finance reports.

• The Knoxville News-Sentinel - Keep sunshine on officials' shoulders

  Today begins Sunshine Week, the time when corporate and individual members of news organizations remind the public of the vital role they play in gathering and presenting information about the operations of local, state and federal governments and their various agencies - operations that, in one way or another, affect the lives of all of us.

• Birmingham News - OpEd: Senators Jeff Sessions, Richard Shelby should support the Campaign Disclosure Parity Act

  Here's an opportunity for Alabama's U.S. senators, Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby, to increase government transparency while saving taxpayer money, paper and time, to boot. They should sponsor the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act (SB482), which would require senators to do like members of Alabama's House delegation already do - file their campaign finance reports in electronic format.

• St. Petersburg Times - Obama an advocate of open government, so far

  WASHINGTON — On his first full day of work, President Obama faced a roomful of senior staff and Cabinet secretaries and outlined his expectations for open government:

• Birmingham News - A chance to increase government transparency Senators should be required to file electronic campaign finance reports

  Here's an opportunity for Alabama's U.S. senators, Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby, to increase government transparency while saving taxpayer money, paper and time, to boot. They should sponsor the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act (SB482), which would require senators to do like members of Alabama's House delegation already do - file their campaign finance reports in electronic format.

• Republican-American - Local groups tap earmarks

  Joan M. Pesce needed money.

• National Journal - Financier Was Well Connected In D.C., Internationally

  When Texas financier R. Allen Stanford came to Washington in February 2006 to be feted at a celebratory dinner by a group called the Inter-American Economic Council, a few of his friends were in the crowd. They included lobbyists and such members of Congress as then-Reps. Bob Ney and Michael Oxley, both Ohio Republicans.

• The Washington Post - Rediscovering the Internet

  The crusade for government transparency and open data -- two of the biggest buzzwords in Washington since President Obama put them on his agenda -- has gained momentum over the past week.

• Chicago Sun Times - Obama's work cut out for him

  WASHINGTON -- The Obama White House's new tech chief is urging citizens to go online and police government spending for waste, fraud and abuse.

• Washington Times - Democrats dine with lobbyists, donors

  President Obama banned lobbyists from raising or giving money to his presidential campaign, but his Democratic colleagues in Congress aren't following suit. House leaders are set to dine Monday night inside the home of two lobbyists with donors who are paying $5,000 or more apiece to attend.

• Wired - Open Up Government Data

  Barack Obama rode into office with a high-tech, open source campaign that digitized the book on campaigning.

• New York Times - The Cobwebbed Chamber

  When will the Senate boot up and join the rest of us in the electronic data age? The chamber has barely moved beyond the quill pen era when it comes to disclosing vital information to voters about who’s financing senators’ election campaigns and in what amounts.

• New Republic - CORRESPONDENCE: A New Era of Corruption?

  The heart of Paul Starr's characteristically thoughtful and well-researched argument is that a core aspect of American democracy has long depended on one-newspaper-town monopolies and a lack of media choice. First, because dailies were monopolies, they could charge very high fees from advertisers. These created the slack out of which newspapers could afford to subsidize those parts of the paper that were important public goods--news and investigative reporting. But these high fees from advertisers are disappearing. Second, part of the democratic role of newspapers has been the political education of the distracted masses. On their way to local job listings and sports pages, readers would inevitably stumble over the front page local corruption story; or coverage of a war. This incidental exposure created a minimally-informed citizenry capable of checking the worst excesses of corrupt government. The dispersion of attention, begun with cable and talk radio and crowned by the Internet, has led to a more inert and uninformed general public. The most politically engaged members of society have used the new diversity of offerings to flock together and become better informed than they could possibly have been in the past. But they are also more partisan. Because of these twin effects, the demise of the 20th century business model of newspapers threatens to undermine the way our democracy functions and to introduce a new era of corruption.

• Federal News Tonight - Read the Bill

  Government Affairs Consultant Lisa Rosenberg sits down with Federal News Tonight to discuss the Readthebill.org campaign.

• News Channel 8 - Reading the Bill

  Sunlight's Government Affairs Consultant Lisa Rosenberg sits down with Federal News Tonight to discuss the Readthebill.org campaign.

• The Washington Post - Web-Savvy Obama Team Hits Unexpected Bumps

  The team that ran the most technologically advanced presidential campaign in modern history is finding it difficult to adapt that model to government. WhiteHouse.gov, envisioned as the primary vehicle for President Obama to communicate with the online masses, has been overwhelmed by challenges that staffers did not foresee and technological problems they have yet to solve.

• Time Magazine - Government should make data openly available and then let outside talent reimagine how it can be used online.

  President Barack Obama has pledged to make the U.S. Government more open and transparent. As a senator, he was off to a promising start by trying to expand the amount of government data offered up to public scrutiny. The most important aspect of his proposal (which has yet to make it into law) was not what information it required the Feds to provide but how they were supposed to supply it. All data on federal funding would have to be made available through "applications programming interfaces," a Web 2.0 tool for managing large amounts of data. The APIs would make it easy for third parties—citizens, civic groups, activists or lobbyists—to take the information and incorporate it into online maps and visual displays or "mashups" that compare it with other data. It would go a long way toward harnessing the Web to promote a rigorous public dialogue.

• Federal News Radio - Clay Johnson Talks About Transparency Camp

  Federal News Radio interviewed Clay Johnson, the director of Sunlight Labs, about Transparency Camp:

• The Washington Post - Letter to the editor: Regarding Dana Milbank's Washington Sketch column "A Tale of 140 Characters, Plus the Ones in Congress"

  The Washington Post printed a letter from Senior fellow Bill Allison addressing Dana Milbank's column of about Congressional lawmakers using Twitter during President Obama's speech to Congress.

• 55 KRC - Lisa Rosenberg interviewed about Read the Bill

  55KRC interviewed Lisa Rosenberg, Sunlight's government affairs consultant, about the Read the Bill campaign:

• CNN - Freddie and Fanny Lobby

  A report by CNN's Lou Dobbs about lobbying that quotes the Sunlight Foundation's Bill Allison.

• Arkanas Democrat Gazette - Fast action on stimulus bill reflects that of Patriot Act

  WASHINGTON - On the floor of the House of Representatives, members griped that they were being asked to decide on sweeping governmental changes without being given a chance to read what was in the bill on which they were voting.

• Topeka Capital-Journal - Lavish events

  The economy keeps swooning. Americans keep scrimping. And yet some members of Congress keep right on throwing ritzy fundraising events as if the bulls on Wall Street never stopped running.

• National Journal - Show Me The Stimulus Money

  In an attempt to impose some austerity on the economic stimulus package, Congress has expressly prohibited casinos, zoos, golf courses, swimming pools, and aquariums from partaking in the behemoth federal dole-out. But with billions of dollars set to flow out of the Treasury over the next decade, how can the government make sure that gamblers, pandas, and Michael Phelps wannabes don't collect a penny of stimulus cash?

• USA Today - Lawmakers take fundraising to slopes

  WASHINGTON — The deepening economic recession hasn't stopped members of Congress from throwing lavish events to raise campaign money for the 2010 election.

• Mother Jones - Dawn of a Newt Age

  Who's the big Republican winner emerging from the gop's decisive defeat in November? It's not Sarah Palin (future as a presidential contender highly doubtful), Mitt Romney (now a political nonentity), or the party's point men in Congress (smaller, weaker caucuses). Amid the wreckage, the guy standing tallest in gop-land is a fallen powerbroker whom some had written off as a has-been: Newt Gingrich. Yes, the silver-haired conservative whom liberals loved to hate—the bomb-throwing backbencher whose Contract With America helped him gain a Republican majority and the House speakership in 1994—is back as a (if not the) Grand Old Man of the party. "Newt," says his former aide Rich Galen, "is the Republican intellect in chief."

• CNN American Morning - Congress a Twitter

  Sunlight Foundation's Conor Kenny discusses Congressional lawmakers who twitter with CNN's American morning.

• CNN - Congress is All A-Twitter

  Sunlight Foundation's Conor Kenny discusses Congressional lawmakers who twitter with CNN's American morning:

• Federal News Radio - Shedding Some Light on Congress

  Federal News Radio interviews Sunlight Foundation's Chief Evangelist Greg Elin in a profile of Apps for America, which they describe as "a contest for web developers to create applications using data from the Sunlight Foundation and mixing it with other information on the web to create a web application that makes congress more accountable, interactive and transparent. Greg Elin, chief evangelist for the Sunlight Foundation, tells us what people can actually create with the process."

• Wired - Future of Government: Uncle Sam In Your Pocket

  As anyone who’s ever been the victim of a mugging can attest to, street crime leaves its victims feeling vulnerable. The simple act of navigating through a city becomes fraught with danger: Who knows what lurks around the bend? A pioneering new tool designed for the iPhone can provide some psychological relief. It tells individuals who’ve paid 99 cents to download the application how safe they are in any given neighborhood with a graphic “Threat Meter.” Below the meter is a constantly updated feed, direct from the police department that lists the number of homicides, assaults, robberies, and car thefts recently committed in the area.

• National Journal - For Ethics Hawks, Congress Could Be Next

  The Obama administration has fielded some tough ethics questions lately, and Congress may be next.

• CBS News - Web Empowers Citizens For Stimulus Package Details

  The White House Web site Recovery.gov illustrates how the $787 billion called for in the economic stimulus bill will be spent.

• Infomation Week - White House Solicits Public Comment On Economic Stimulus Plan

  It's unclear whether the White House posted the economic stimulus bill five days before its approval.

• WAMU - Power Breakfast: February 16, 2009

  WAMU , a National Public Radio in Washington D.C. , "Power Breakfast" interviewed Sunlight Foundation's Chief Evangelist Greg Elin about Recovery.gov and transparency in the stimulus bill.

• Time Magazine - Congress's New Love Affair with Twitter

  In today's carefully stage-managed Washington, the last thing anyone expects from members of Congress is candor or spontaneity. So perhaps it's not all that surprising that Representative Pete Hoekstra unwittingly triggered a maelstrom of criticism last weekend when he Twittered about his trip to Iraq. "Just landed in Baghdad," the Michigan Republican typed on his BlackBerry, alerting the nearly 3,000 people who have signed up to follow him on the social-networking service of the trip that he and five others, including House minority leader John Boehner, had embarked on. Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, took exception to the criticism from both the left and right that he had somehow jeopardized the security of those on the trip through his messages, or Tweets. "On this trip, nothing was classified as secret or top secret or anything like that," Hoekstra told TIME. "A whole range of people know about the trip, people with no security clearances, including my wife." (Read a Q&A with the first Gen Y Congressman.)

• Pinoneer Press - Sunlight Foundation: Post the stimulus bill online -- before it's signed into law

  With millions of people losing their jobs, their health insurance and their homes to foreclosure, it seems that few people, whatever their political persuasion, are arguing that government shouldn't take swift action. So Congress is rushing on an $800 billion-plus, who-knows-how-many-pages stimulus bill.

• Washington Examiner - Editorial: Obama, Reid, Pelosi burn billions behind closed doors

  For officials who came into office promising to operate the most honest and transparent White House and Congress ever, President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seem determined to achieve exactly the opposite result. Their actions in securing passage of the $1 trillion economic stimulus bill – the total cost exceeds $1 trillion when interest is added to the $838 billion Senate or $827 billion House versions - would be laughable were not the consequences for the nation so dire. Take for example the trio’s determination to hustle the Senate-House conference committee to begin meeting within hours of Senate passage of the upper chamber’s compromise version.

• Roll Call - Outrageous

  In this year when “transparency” is all the rage, it would be appropriate for the Senate — at long last — to join the House and every federal political committee in filing campaign finance reports electronically.

• Le Monde - In Washington, the advent of "clicocratie"

  January 17th , three days before his inauguration, Barack Obama, continuing a practice well established, sends a video to millions of Americans who had registered on his campaign website. He announced that the militant movement that had sprung up across the country to support his candidacy should not dissolve itself. But through the sustained and expanded, to support reforms that the Government will in relation to health insurance, energy and the fight against unemployment: "I ask you and those who like you have fought for change during the campaign, to continue fighting for change in your community. " Accompanying text retains the intimate and familiar tone that had worked so well during the campaign, calling everyone by their first name and is signed simply "Barack."

• Detroit News - Let the sunshine in

  The Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to transparency in government, is calling on President Obama to post the stimulus package online for at least 72 hours before it goes to a final vote. That's a fine idea.

• Times-Picayune - Some critics wonder if earmarks disguised

  WASHINGTON -- Supporters of the huge stimulus bill pending before Congress boast that the measure is free of the so-called earmarks that have drawn criticism in the past as special deals for powerful lawmakers.

• Orange County Register - Post stimulus bill online first. Why not?

  I get an occasional e-mail from something called the Sunlight Foundation, which so far as I can see is that rare creature, a group billed as non-partisan that really is pretty close to being non-partisan, in that they have fairly consistently encouraged more openness and transparency on both Republicans and Democrats.

• The Detroit News - GOP playing vital role in stimulus bill

  Twice in recent weeks President Barack Obama has reminded Republican members of Congress that there was an election in November, and he won. That's true. There's no disputing that Obama now gets his mail at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.

• Orange County Register - O.C.-built site offers peek into stimulus package

  While a nearly $1-trillion plan to revive the economy gets grilled on Capitol Hill, thousands of citizens have crowded online to pore over the bulky government proposal.

• NY Post - And Over the Top

  Say this for Rep. Charlie Rangel, dean of the New York congressional delegation and chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee: He's consistent.

• Chattanooga Times Free Press - Opinion: Piercing the D.C. darkness

  As presidents change, particularly when the new commander in chief wears different political stripes, so do policies.

• Daily Herald (Chicago) - Put some teeth in public information law, commission told

  When the Better Government Association used the state's Freedom of Information Act in 2006 to try to get a copy of all the federal subpoenas raining down on Gov. Blagojevich, it was basically told to pound sand.

• National Journal - Tracking The Washington Elite

  When the news broke that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had named Mark Patterson as his chief of staff, reporters and political insiders wondered where Patterson fit as an inside-the-Beltway player. Until last April, Patterson was a Washington lobbyist for Goldman Sachs, and before that he worked as an aide to then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and on the Senate Finance Committee staff.

• NPR - Tracking Stimulus Funds Presents Daunting Task

  Americans appear to be strongly behind some version of the spending and tax-cut stimulus plan working its way through Congress. A new Gallup Poll shows that three-quarters of those surveyed support the effort, though more than one-third think major changes to the nearly $1 trillion bill are needed before it hits President Obama's desk.

• Fox News - Rangel Filings Don't Account for Assets

  Bret Baier with Fox News reported that Sunlight Foundation's Real Time Investigations found 28 instances in which Rep. Rangel failed to report personal finances correctly over last 30 years.

• Politico - With Daschle out, GOP targets Rangel

  With Democrats still steaming over the Tom Daschle debacle, a House Republican tried to keep the heat turned up high Wednesday by introducing a new measure targeting Rep. Charles B. Rangel, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman with tax problems of his own.

• Fox News - A Report Alleges Further Financial Follies From Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel

  Bret Baier with Fox News reported that Sunlight Foundation's Real Time Investigations found 28 instances in which Rep. Charlie Rangel failed to report personal finances correctly over last 30 years.

• Washington Examiner - Opinon: Audit them all and make the results public

  Tom Daschle prudently withdrew his nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services, but that’s not the most important tax story on Washington politicians, influence peddlers and lobbyists. People typically believe big guys in this town are treated one way and little guys another, usually far more harshly.

• The Hill - Rangel faces questions about book royalties

  Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is facing new questions about why he has not disclosed any royalty income on his 2007 memoir And I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress.

• Associated Press - Report: NY's Rep. Rangel didn't disclose assets

  NEW YORK (AP) - A new report says that Rep. Charles B. Rangel failed to disclose what became of thousands of dollars in assets over the past three decades.

• WNYC - More Tax Troubles for Rangel

  WNYC's Richard Hake spoke with Sunlight Foundation's Senior Fellow Bill Allison his recent findings of 28 instances in which Rep. Charlie Rangel failed to report personal finances correctly over last 30 years.

• Boston Globe - Daschle gives up Cabinet bid

  WASHINGTON - Tom Daschle, a powerful former senator and one of President Obama's confidants, withdrew his nomination for Health and Human Services secretary yesterday, a stunning reversal that could sidetrack Obama's push for healthcare reform - and that underscored the difficulty of carrying out the new president's pledge to change the ways of Washington.

• Reader's Digest - Outrageous: Wasteful Spending on Capitol Hill

  John McCain didn't win the presidency, but he had this right: Earmarks are out of control in Congress. Indeed, even as lawmakers were writing the giant $700 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of the financial industry last fall, they were finding creative new ways to waste your money. Buried in a huge budget bill passed the very same week was $6.6 billion in earmarked pork barrel spending-spending slipped in at the request of certain congressmen and never subjected to debate.

• New York Times - Rangel’s Financial Disclosures Omitted Data Over 30 Years, a Report Says

  Representative Charles B. Rangel’s financial disclosure forms had at least 28 omissions in the past 30 years and failed to account for what became of more than $239,000 in assets, according to a report issued Wednesday by a private government-ethics group.

• CQ Politics - As Rangel Investigation Slogs on, GOP Renews Calls for Him to Step Down

  Despite Speaker Nancy Pelosi ’s desire for the House ethics probe of Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel to end early last month, the investigation appears to be dragging on.

• Forbes - Where Real Innovation Happens

  SEBASTOPOL, Calif.--Forget Silicon Valley. Traditional wisdom is that it represents the model for American innovation: a hotbed of young entrepreneurs with easy access to capital from a large pool of savvy investors.

• The Washington Post - Mark Warner Twitters? Tweet!

  On the U.S. Senate floor, Mark Warner (D) is on Twitter. That means a 140-character limit. Can the gentleman even clear his throat?

• Bloomberg News - AT&T Gives $4.4 Million in Donations, Passes UPS as Top Giver

  (Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc., which is battling over Internet access, contributed $4.4 million to federal candidates and the political parties for the 2008 election, the most among corporate political action committees.

• Washington Times - Aide paid by lobby with foreign clients

  A university dean picked as one of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's top diplomatic deputies has earned tens of thousands of dollars in part-time consulting work from a prominent Washington lobbying firm with a roster of foreign clients that include a Dubai-backed company and Colombia's trade bureau.

• NPR: Kojo Nnamdi Show - The Future of Government Transparency

  Sunlight Foundation's Chief Evangelist , Greg Elin, appears on National Public Radio's Kojo Nnamdi show to discuss the future of government transparency in digital age.

• WAMU - Interview with Greg Elin of Sunlight

  WAMU, a National Public Radio in Washington D.C., interviewed Sunlight Foundation's Chief Evangelist Greg Elin on the Kojo Nnamdi Show.

• USA Today - Opinion: Let the sun shine on records

  It's a simple principle: People should be able to keep an eye on what their government is doing. Secrecy should be minimal.

• Glenn Post Star - Editorial: High praise for Gillibrand’s commitment to open government

  The Sunlight Foundation, a government openness watchdog group that is rarely complimentary of public officials in Washington, had some rare praise today for one of them in particular – our former congresswoman, Kirsten Gillibrand.

• Roll Call - Rangel Money Is Returned

  Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) confirmed Monday that he has returned campaign contributions from Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), in expectation that the House ethics committee will soon renew its investigation of the senior Democrat.

• Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Bush picks cash in on contacts

  HARRISBURG -- Two years after he stepped down as the nation's first head of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge's company, Ridge Global LLC, cosponsored a Washington event matter-of-factly titled "Accessing funds from the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security."

• New York Observer - Senator Gillibrand's First Sunday Press Conference

  At her first Sunday press conference as senator in New York City, Kirsten Gillibrand reiterated her support for “hunters' rights,” calling it a “core value for our region and for our state,” but said her “advocacy will become broader.”

• The Oregonian - Opinion: Obama's welcome call for open government

  For eight years, essentially, the Bush administration gave the finger to the news media -- and, by extension, to the American public. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were blatantly hostile to the notion that their actions, and almost all actions of the government they headed, should be as open and transparent as possible.

• Austin American Statesman (Cox News Service) - Obama wins praise for transparency efforts

  WASHINGTON — In the midst of an unprecedented flood of federal spending to refloat the grounded economy, President Barack Obama is offering hope to those who fear taxpayers' money will be siphoned off for bridges to nowhere, extravagant office furnishings and other boondoggles.

• Congress Daily - Obama's FOIA directive brings praise, bit of skepticism

  In a nod to his campaign promise to facilitate government transparency, President Obama issued a Freedom of Information Act memorandum as one of his first official orders Wednesday. In it, he instructed all members of his administration to operate under principles of openness, transparency and of engaging citizens.

• York Daily Record - New rules let Congress 'tweet' or star on YouTube

  U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Blair County, has an online video of himself urging the House of Representatives to drill for oil. U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Philadelphia, has one of her accusing President Bush of not doing enough to support children without insurance

• Wired - The Wired Presidency: Can Obama Really Reboot the White House?

  Barack Obama promises to reboot the White House. But first he'll have to navigate the blogosphere and deep layers of federal gobbledygook.

• Fast Company - The Most Influential Women in Technology

  Women who have succeeded in technology deserve recognition: They are an inspiration for everyone, demonstrating what can be achieved through creativity and hard work.

• Associated Press - Lobbyists use inauguration to show their influence

  WASHINGTON (AP) — The sushi was plentiful, the jazz ensemble loud and the guest list included just what the party-givers wanted: members of Congress, incoming Obama administration officials and celebrities.

• Washington Examiner - Faux transparency of the House economic stimulus bill

  Democrats in the House are congratulating themselves for allegedly including historic levels of transparency and accountability in the $825 billion economic stimulus bill draft they released today. And indeed there are some definite steps forward in the draft, but a modestly close reading reveals that most of the "transparency" in this proposal is of the faux kind.

• National Public Radio - One Click Disclosure

  Government spending data has long been publicly available but it's never been easier to find and interpret. That's thanks to USAspending.gov, a site created by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 which was sponsored by Tom Coburn and Barack Obama. The Sunlight Foundation's Greg Elin explains what makes the site so revolutionary.

• Politico - Politico party guide: Scene and be seen

  There are parties, and then there are parties. And in the next week, Washington will see plenty of both.

• Columbia Journalism Review - A See-Through Society

  It may be a while before the people who run the U.S. House of Representatives’ Web service forget the week of September 29, 2008. That’s when the enormous public interest in the financial bailout legislation, coupled with unprecedented numbers of e-mails to House members, effectively crashed www.house.gov. On Tuesday of that week, a day after the House voted down the first version of the bailout bill, House administrators had to limit the number of incoming e-mails processed by the site’s “Write Your Representative” function. Demand for the text of the legislation was so intense that third-party sites that track Congress were also swamped. GovTrack.us, a private site that produces a user-friendly guide to congressional legislation, had to shut down. Its owner, Josh Tauberer, posted a message reading, “So many people are searching for the economic relief bill that GovTrack can’t handle it. Take a break and come back later when the world cools off.”

• New York Times - YouTube Teams With Congress to Show Lawmakers at Work

  SAN FRANCISCO — YouTube is aiming to raise its profile in American politics by helping deliver a glimpse of life on Capitol Hill to its large online audience.

• Washington Times - Special interests prey on Inaugural

  President-elect Barack Obama may want to keep "special interests" out of the White House, but he can't keep them out of Washington for his inauguration.

• Brian Leher Show - Republicans Favoring Increased Transparency for Obama Spending Bill

  Senior fellow Bill Allison discusses with CUNY TV's Brian Leher Show the possibility of Obama's broad stimulus bill to be publicly accessible online a week before a vote and vested interest all politics parties have in more government transparency.

• Erie Times News - Dahlkemper makes debut in Congress

  It's official. Sworn into office on Tuesday, Kathy Dahlkemper now represents the 3rd Congressional District.

• CQ Politics - Next Time, Seek Counsel from Within

  The Federal Election Commission recently sought advice from outsiders about how the agency could better enforce campaign finance laws. But what it got was completely unexpected — some 200 letters questioning President-elect Obama’s citizenship and demanding an immediate audit of his campaign finances.

• Atlantic Monthly - iGov

  Barack Obama has said we need a “Google for government.” It’s a nice line, but what does it mean? Federal agencies have been online since the mid-’90s. Obama’s first crack at a Google-for-government law led to USAspending.gov, a budget tracker that looked like everything else the feds had put up on the Web—until I saw one geek-speak phrase on the home page, so small I almost missed it: API Documentation. To understand its significance, let me tell you how I got subway schedules on my iPhone.

• CQ Weekly - New Congress Checks In

  After finding their offices and their way around the Capitol, new members of the 111th Congress will surely turn to the question of the best venue for their first fundraisers.

• NJ Record - Capitol Games

  YOU CAN argue about whether Congress ever gets anything done, but everyone can agree Congress sure talks a lot about getting things done.

• USA Today - 'Transparency' fixes seen in Congress' future

  WASHINGTON — Paper piles up quickly at the Federal Election Commission, where employees thumb through campaign finance reports in quiet cubicles, keying numbers into a database.